


On The Precipice

by Walker98



Series: Revolution of the Soul [2]
Category: The Host - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alien Invasion, Chicago (City), Romance, Science Fiction, Souls, The Host - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-10
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-11 21:39:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 60,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walker98/pseuds/Walker98
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the city of Chicago Marc Walters and a small band of Human rebels have been able to hide in a city full of Aliens called Souls. Surviving thru guile, smarts, and a little luck they have managed to remain free even as Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow is closing in on them. However, both Humans and Souls will have to put aside differences as an unknown plague begins to effect both sides.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

_**Prologue -** _

Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow looked through her binoculars and took sight of the small group of men loading a truck at the end of the street. It was long past the time anyone would normally be working at the warehouse. _'Any Soul that is...'_ she thought to herself, but her target was most certainly not her peaceful brethren, ' _Wild Humans…_ ' she was certain.

She put down her binoculars and looked at her fellow Seeker in the seat next to her. Calm Waters Below was a tall man with dark brown hair. Like his name he always presented a calm demeanor and quiet reassurance that Bright Moon always found helpful when preparing for a task like the one they would be undertaking in a few moments. Wild Humans could be dangerous and she had personal experience with the group of humans loading the truck, they could be very dangerous indeed. She felt the pistol she wore on her belt. As a Soul she abhorred violence, but as her following did require it, she was more than ready to use the weapon.

"Is it the Humans ?" asked Calm Waters.

"I am sure of it," she replied. "Are we ready?"

Calm Waters Below looked out of their car and took sight of the four other Seeker vehicles parked alongside them. Each Seeker inside the cars gave a quick nod of the affirmative. "We are." He responded firmly.

Bright Moon took her cell phone and clicked to connect to the remaining group of Seekers based at the other end the warehouses. "This is Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow; we are beginning our interception now. All groups, be ready to pull in and grab our subjects once we drive them through the warehouse." There was a quick response over the line stating that her fellow Seekers were ready. She turned to Calm Waters in the passenger seat who awaited her command and said with a small smile, "Go".

In the early spring night on the south side of Chicago there was little activity and the sudden start of four car engines broke the peace in an instant. The Seekers vehicles closed the distance to the loading dock quickly and boxed in the truck preventing it from being an avenue of escape for the three startled men.

One of the men carrying a large box took only a moment to see the cars and their occupants for what they were. "Seekers!" he cried out and dropped the box. The raised alarm had the other two men suddenly bolting into the dark inside of the warehouse.

Bright Moon was out of the car barely before it had come to a stop. Her body was young and athletic and she pushed it forward with ease. Since coming to Earth three years ago she had grown to like this host body more than any of her earlier host bodies. It was strong and quick and she jumped up the short flight of stairs to the loading dock. Her fellow Seekers were right behind her and she followed the Humans into the warehouse.

Inside the warehouse it was nearly dark, but there was some illumination from small lights at the end of each row of supplies making up the contents of the warehouse. She and her companion Seekers brought out flashlights giving them added illumination in the dark warehouse. The three men running down the center aisle didn't have any lights and were desperately looking for a way out. This was as she planned; her small group of Seekers would push the Humans into a larger group waiting at the other side of the building. She grew confident, if all went well she would have three captives and a quick insertion of a Soul to each human she would be able to find where their hidden base of operation was at by the end of the night.

As she ran she caught sight of some movement in her peripheral vision. It wasn't one of her fellow seekers. Only a quick movement of something dark in the even darker warehouse, _'Someone else here?'_ , she thought but her attention focused back to the three Humans. They were slowing, tiring and they were catching up. Near the center of the warehouse as she ran she noticed something was wrong with the floor. Instead of the hard concrete the floor yielded and felt strangely soft and uneven. Suddenly there was motion coming from her left side and as quick as she was to raise the alarm something came out of the darkness. Low and fast, it hit her in her legs and she went down to her knees hard.

With rapid swiftness she saw several other of her fellow Seekers go down as well. Their legs and feet caught in a tangle of thin rope with a weight tied to the end. She tried to make sense of the object, her host's mind pulling up a dim memory of the object – a Bola. She was trying to free herself from it and in her struggles she felt the ground underneath her. _'More rope?'_ she thought but understood instinctively she was wrong. Too late to give a real warning to her companions, she said "We are in a net!"

At that exact moment one of the running Humans turn and bellowed, "NOW!" And with a surprising jerk of speed the net folded upwards carrying several of the Seekers off the ground. Bright Moon on Fallen Snow tumbled into the other Seekers as the net closed around her. She tried to pull herself upwards but the body of Seeker Simple Sunlight crashed into her and they all went into a heap at the bottom of the net, five feet off the ground.

"We got two outside the net!" spoke the Human who had ordered the trap to snap close on the Seekers. He stopped running with the other two Humans and closed the distance back to the net. Bright Moon could see Seeker Calm Waters Below outside the net, frantically looking for a way to free them. "Get help", she told him, but it was too late. She gasped as he started to turn when something small and metallic hit him the chest. Abruptly Calm Waters' body jerked and shuddered, going down in a heap. The small metallic clips connected to a length of thin wire, then connected to small device held by one of the previously fleeing Humans. The Human was big and powerfully built, his dark skin blending in with his dark clothing. He eyed Bright Moon evenly and then bent down to remove Calm Waters' side arm.

Bright Moon turned trying to see who else had escaped the Humans' trap but couldn't make them out. There was noise of scuffle, then the hiss of something, and finally the sound of a body hitting the floor. The big Human working on Calm Waters looked up and asked, "You get her Kate?"

"Yeah took her down with a bottle of SLEEP, she'll be out for hours," came a female voice from the darkness. One of the Seekers' flashlights fallen outside of the net briefly illuminated a small woman with bronze colored skin and dark mop of hair as she moved around the net.

"Okay," said the large man who finished tying up Calm Waters and taking stock of the trapped Seekers said, "Everyone get in there and pull any guns or other weapons they have on them." Emerging from the darkness several other Humans moved and began working on grabbing the ensnared Seekers and getting their side arms.

"You will not get away with this," spoke Bright Moon keeping her voice calm, "More of my kind are on the way."

"Yeah, but they aren't here now," replied the small woman named Kate. Her right hand quickly darted in between the ropes of the net and grabbed Bright Moon's pistol. The seeker tried to pull away and prevent the grasping Human's hand but twisted into the pile of her colleagues she couldn't get away and her gun came free.

One of the humans, young with a shaggy bunch of blond hair, pulled free a pistol from one of the trapped Seekers. He looked at the weapon and then back to the Seekers. He palmed the gun and then looked back again at the trapped Seekers with a dark expression on his face. Several of Bright Moon's fellow Seekers quietly pleading with Humans to let them go and turn themselves in, took sight of the boy with the gun and stopped talking.

Bright Moon saw the hatred on the young Human's face and shuddered. Humans were so quick to violence and she could see where this trap was heading. She would not show them fear. She would face her final death with strength. The boy was still glowering at the Seekers when a new voice sounded out of the darkness. "Tim!" At this voice the boy straightened and the new voice continued, "No. We don't do that unless we need to."

Coming out of darkened warehouse a young man appeared and came up to the boy named Tim. Dressed like the others in dark clothing, his hair a short spiky dark brown. He offered out his hand and Tim reluctantly gave him the gun. "And right now we don't need to use this, got it?"

Tim gave the Seekers one more unhappy look but then nodded, "Okay, I wasn't really going to, just wanted to scare them."

The young man said with a grin, "Trust me they aren't too happy, right Bri?"

Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow looked and grimaced, something rare for a Soul to do, but she knew this Human all too well. There were few Humans she had dealt with who were a source of chaos as this one. She had met him before and each time he had escaped her, often with large amounts of property damage in his wake. And he insistently called her _Bri_ , much to her annoyance. "Marc Walters," she breathed.

The big man who finished securing the weapons came up to Marc and said with a sigh, "Nice. You are on a first name basis with the Seekers."

"Yeah I must be doing something right," replied Marc. "Dell, you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Bri and her pals before?"

"Can't say I have, and I'm not feeling too bad about that either," replied Dell.

Marc sighed, "Yep and she is the reason we lost the food storage out on 8th street."

"Food you illegally took," argued the Seeker.

"And you figured we would go on a raid and you set your little trap for us?" spoke up Kate who joined the other Humans. "You Souls are just so lovely while you try to starve a bunch of us."

Both Seeker and Marc were about to reply when Bright Moon's cell phone rang. There was a quick moment of alarm from the Humans and Bright Moon desperately reached for her cell phone in her pocket. One of her fellow Seekers tried to help her in their trapped spot but both stopped when the Humans turned their own guns on them. "Drop it," said Marc in a low voice with a gun just an inch above her face. He quickly grabbed the ringing cell phone and tossed it to Kate. "Can you handle it?"

Kate shrugged and said, "Worth a try". She began to pant with rapid breathing and then answered the phone. A tiny voice came from the phone, **"Seeker Bright Moon, are you there? What is your status?"** Kate responded back as though she was running. "We are in pursuit of the Humans, but they are attempting to hide out in the warehouse."

" **Understood, do you require assistance?"**

Kate kept her voice as calm as possible, "No, please hold your position, we don't want any of them to escape. Thank you." With that she hung up the phone and tossed it into the darkness. "No telling if they bought that."

"Yep," replied Marc, "Time to get this show on the road."

Bright Moon spoke up, "You can't leave without them noticing. Your truck is too large and slow to get away." She was gaining confidence, trapped as she was, so were the Humans.

Marc smiled, "True, but I'm not here for food and the truck isn't needed."

She frowned again and thought, _'Why does he always act like he knows what I'm going to do before I do?'_ , "What are you here for?"

Marc leaned over her and grinned, "Something you have that I want." He reached up with his hand and began to move up her hip. She inhaled roughly at him as he reached up to her waist. "Sorry about this" and he pulled out…her keys to the car. She gaped at him and he continued, "Your Seeker cars are so choice. Nice and fast, just what we need here." She saw the other Humans confiscate the other Seekers keys as well.

Marc, Dell, Kate, Tim and three other Humans began to disappear into the darkness that surrounded the Seekers. "Wait," she cried but they were already swallowed by the gloom. "See you around Bri," called Marc from the blackness and was gone.

* * *

 

####

* * *

_**-Elsewhere** _

" _Are we ready?" asked the man behind the desk._

" _Everything is in place," replied his assistant seated across from him, "We have monitors at all key locations."_

" _Fallout projections?"_

" _Around ninety percent give or take a two percent margin of error."_

" _And how long do we wait?"_

" _After initial infection, about seventy-two hours for the mess to really hit the fan so to speak"_

" _Do we have any solid reports of Human hold outs in the Chicago area?", asked the man as he examined several reports on his desk._

" _We know of one group, seems like they have been a problem for the parasites for the last year or so."_

_The man looked up from his reports, "Got to take a special breed to survive in a city full of those things."_

" _Is it an issue?" asked his assistant._

_The man behind the desk paused for a moment considering, and then shrugged, "They are just collateral damage."_


	2. Openings

Marc Walters opened his eyes and resisted the urge to turn over and go back to sleep. His body was already telling him he had been asleep for too long with a crick in his neck. A quick glance at his watch showed it past 11 AM, and he hadn't gotten to sleep to after 4 AM. _'Late night joy riding and all'_ he thought to himself. Still missing breakfast wasn't good and his stomach was informing him of that fact now.

He rolled off the bed and stumbled through putting on some clothes just past the point of being so dirty they could stand by themselves. In the Lair of the Last Humans in Chicago, laundry services were more than a little lacking. But then cleanliness had taken a back seat more important tasks such as gathering food and supplies, hiding from a city full of aliens that looked human – but most certainly were not, and trying keeping said aliens from putting a little parasite in your neck and turning you into one of them. But not much point in complaining as Marc often told people, _'You got to play the hand your dealt, no other way to play the game.'_

Opening the door to his makeshift bedroom he stuck his head out to the tunnel leading up to the great hall. Seemingly empty he left closing the door behind him and nearly ran into Sister Mary-Margret. Although her some sixty years of life, many of them difficult, had left her worn and more than a little stooped she still could move quickly and had the habit of often sneaking up on Marc, something few people could do easily. He tried to smile at the Nun, but she wasn't having any of it.

"About time you got up, nearly noon, everyone else is long up and about their chores."

"I know, I know," he said trying to soothe her. "Was out late last night, you know, raiding and all."

"And what did you bring back?" she asked.

Marc sighed; she wasn't going to let him off easy today, "Not much, just some Seeker equipment and weapons."

"Marc, what about the food?" said Mary-Margret in a soft tone.

It wasn't a question nor was it an accusation, but just the Sister's way of guiding the conversation. Marc had long ago given up trying to argue with her when she started with her non-questions.

"OK, look, I know food supplies are starting to run low, but last night wasn't going to work as a food run. I had to change the plans up a bit."

"To get back at the Seekers?"

"Well…yeah…I mean they had it coming. We are running low on food because of them." Two weeks earlier the Seekers, led by none other than his favorite seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow, had located and confiscated one of their food storage sites. Since then they had to make do with other sources, and everyone was beginning to feel the pinch.

Mary-Margret leaned in and shook her head sadly, "Marc, this fighting with the Seekers is only going to lead to trouble, escalating with them…"

"Me!" he shouted, interrupting her, "I'm not the one who keeps pushing on us, trying to trap us, starve us, stick brain parasites in us."

"I know," she said softly, putting her hands on his chest to calm him. "None of us asked for this, but we need to find a way to calm the situation. We lived here for years, under their radar, co-existing without their knowledge…"

Marc shook his head, "Yeah but I don't see how now, ever since Seeker Bri showed up, she has made our lives a living hell."

* * *

####

* * *

"Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow, would you come into my office, please?"

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow stiffened almost imperceptibly, she had anticipated this meeting, but she had been unable to control her worries about it. Last night had been _difficult_ to say the least and her body was still tired from the late night. The two AWAKE slips she had taken this morning had begun to wear off and she had skipped breakfast much to her body's protest.

She rose from her seat and entered the office of Seeker Skyward Into the Night. She sat down next to her fellow seeker Calm Waters Below who gave her a small smile that didn't help with her unease. Skyward Into Night was small man with thinning hair just beginning to go grey. His face never seemed to smiled very much, and by some Souls' estimation he was rather sour. However, his standing with the Seekers in Chicago was never in doubt. He had been among the first arrivals to Earth and worked tirelessly to bring peace and order to this troubled world. Seekers, like all Souls, worked for the common good and with easy co-operation among their members. There was no large chain of command to the Seekers, but due to Skyward Into the Night's experience and skill he was the administrator of all Seekers in the city. And was at this point, who Bright Moon answered to about last night's failure.

"I have read the report from last night, but would like to hear what happened from you," said Skyward.

Bright Moon cleared her throat, "We had made plans to lay a trap at one of the food warehouses in the south side of the city. We had hoped to make the trap as tempting target for the Human Insurgency as possible. Once they had come into steal food, we would trap them in the building and secure a prisoner for insertion."

Skyward nodded, "What went wrong?"

"The Humans apparently anticipated this trap and readied one of their own. We found they had tampered with the building's alarm system. It allowed them to work in setting up a cargo net in the center of the building all the while we were planning our trap outside the building." she answered briskly.

"After capturing you and your team, they stole your vehicles?"

Bright Moon had to stop herself from shrinking into the chair, "Yes."

Skyward looked up from the report and frowned, "There are tracking devices on the automobiles, are they not?"

"The humans disabled it." answered Clam Waters.

He regarded Calm Waters dryly for a moment and went back to the report, "It says here that you Calm Waters Below and Seeker Allison were physically attacked by the Humans. You have suffered no lasting damage?"

"Seeker Allison was given a large douse of SLEEP. While I was hit by Taser, it was an unpleasant experience, but neither of us has lasting damage."

Skyward leaned back in his chair and gave a ghost of smile at this news, but then focused his attention back on Bright Moon. "What became of the cars stolen by the Humans?"

"We located the vehicles about five miles away after searching for them. By the time we found them they had largely been stripped of equipment." answered Bright Moon.

"And there was no sign of the Humans? How were they able to leave with their stolen equipment?"

Bright Moon sighed audibly, "I'm sorry seeker, I misspoke, we only recovered three cars. The other used for their gateway."

"Whose?"

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow hung her head, "Mine."

She was about to say more, but the door to Skyward Into the Night's office opened suddenly and her fellow Seeker, Simple Sunlight, came in excitedly. "Seeker Bright Moon, we have found your vehicle!"

* * *

It was nearly half an hour later before Bright Moon and her fellow Seekers were able to get over to her car. Skyward had insisted on going with her and Calm Waters, his curiosity raised over the message they had received. The message had been short and to the point, **'Seeker vehicle found at Wrigley Square Fountain, please remove and secure.'**

Upon arriving at Millennial Park they found her car was not parked by the fountain, it was parked _in_ the fountain. The car stuck out an odd angle, the front partly submerged in the water of the fountain and the back hanging out over the side of the monument. This oddity had drawn a large crowd of onlookers. Most of the Souls present expressed confusion at how the automobile had come to rest in the fountain.

As she neared the car she stared in disbelief at what had happened to it. On the driver's side in large, bright, red-painted letters read the message – **"Thank you Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow"** after it there was a symbol she realized was a smiley face. She turned back to Skyward and Calm Waters, not even knowing what to say. They, too, were for the moment speechless.

"Excuse me," asked a young Soul who made up part of the crowd of onlookers, "Are you Seeker Bright Moon?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Why is your car in the fountain?"

She stared at the young woman who asked, and shook her head trying to somehow dismiss the sight see saw in front of her. "It was stolen by a wild human last night."

This wasn't the best answer she could have given; perhaps a more tactful one would have done better, for soon the crowd was abuzz with the news that Humans were responsible for this destruction. It took several minutes for both Calm Waters and Skyward to calm the crowd down. "Please," spoke Skyward loudly, "We have the issue well in hand, and the perpetrators of this horrible crime will be found." In short order the crowd began to disperse, some still looking back at the sight, and shaking their heads.

Calm Waters took out his cell phone and called for equipment to extract the car from the fountain. Bright Moon felt what little energy she had left drain out of her and she sat down at the edge of the fountain. Skyward sat down beside her, he began to speak, but she started first.

"It was Marc Walters" she said tightly, "All of this destruction, it is all part of some devious plan of his."

"I have read your reports on him," replied Skyward, "I'm not sure I agree with all of your findings"

"NO!" she said in a tone startling both of them. She calmed herself and continued. "I am sure of it; Marc Walters represents a new type of human insurgent. One far more dangerous than ones we have faced in the past."

Skyward considered this, "Perhaps, but he seems oddly fixated on you."

"It is all part of his attack, this…this…" she gestured at the car in the fountain, "psychological warfare. Their assaults designed to keep us off-balance, second guessing ourselves, and then when we have become vulnerable…they will attack us outright." She sighed and stood back up. "Marc Walters is insidious. I would give nearly anything to know what he is doing."

* * *

####

* * *

Eric laughed out loud as Marc told him of his outing last night. After talking to Mary-Margret, he had promised the Nun we would work on solving their food supply. But at this point he needed his own food supply as his stomach rumbled again. In the great hall, which made up a large part of their underground refuge, lunch was just starting. Eric was already eating a bowl of something mushy when Marc sat down beside him with his own food.

"So right into the Wrigley Square Fountain?" asked Eric.

"Got it on the third try, front end will need a serious realignment."

"Nice, I'll see about hacking the traffic camera servers, get some nice film footage for posterity."

Marc frowned, "Be careful, this got them stirred up, they will be double checking everything about this, including traffic cameras."

Eric bobbed his head in agreement, "Yeah I know, but they always forget about the archives, I'll get the footage eventually." He mused to himself for a minute, "You know for super advanced space aliens, their computer security sucks."

Marc looked over their resident computer hacker. Pushing nearly forty, Eric Sunders had at one time been a much sought over computer expert coming out of MIT. He was on the fast track for a very nice job, nice life, and whole middle class success story. But then the invasion had come and all that had gone out the window. Due to Eric's habit of hacking anything he could get into and a descent amount of paranoia, he had early on recognized what was going on as the human race was slowly but surely conquered the alien Souls.

"Yeah, but they have that crazy need to experience the host body life as is…So no great changes to our world, or our computers", replied Marc as he ate something tasting vaguely like potatoes.

"Therefore our computer vulnerabilities became their computer vulnerabilities, much to our advantage," smiled Eric. Marc agreed, but privately felt he had to keep Eric's ego in check. The man was good at what he did, had saved them more a few times, but he could get them all in trouble if the Souls managed to track his computer hacking back to their home.

"So," Eric asked in a lowered voice, "What are we doing about the food situation?"

"Well we are not down to eating rats just yet"

"I figured that," replied Eric, "But this has people worried."

"I know, but we've had a contingency plan for this for a while, just haven't wanted to pull it just yet," answered Marc.

"You mean Auntie" said Eric with a frown.

"You know she would do it for us if we asked," said Marc.

Eric sighed, "Yeah, she would, but still asking a Soul for this…"

Marc said evenly, "The number of Souls I trust up there I can count on one hand and she is at the top of the list. She's been willing to help before. But I know this would be a lot for her to do, so I've held off till we didn't have other choices."

"So this is the plan? When do we start?" asked Eric.

"I need to run this past Dell and a few others, but hopefully we can start in a few days. We need to be real careful on this job. Speaking of Dell, where is he?"

Eric thought a second, "He's up at the duck blind."

"Perfect," said Marc getting up, "Need to stretch my legs anyway."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well another chapter in. I know not much has happened, but I am building my characters and setting the stage so to speak.


	3. Observed

After lunch Marc headed out of the great hall and traveled through several tunnels till he came to the exit of their base. As he was preparing to leave he heard a small voice behind him.

"Brother, are you going to the surface?"

He turned and saw Mia standing in the door way. The small Asian girl dressed in her usual black tank top and dirty cargo pants. She was balancing on her balls of her feet with excited grin. "Can I go with you?"

"I'm just running up to the duck blind, nothing fancy, and shouldn't you be in school?"

Mia made a face, "I know my letters, my numbers, and how to use a knife, what more do I need know?"

Marc sighed, "Sister Mary-Margret doesn't see it that way, and she will be upset if you aren't in her class. You don't want to make a nun sad, do you?"

Mia thought on this for a moment, but then played her trump card, "When you were my age, how often were you in school?"

"Okay, not going to argue with you on that, but if Mary-Margret asks you weren't with me," replied Marc.

Mia smiled and dashed out the door and headed to the gateway taking them to the underground waterway. She looked back over her shoulder, "Having me lie to a nun, who makes Sister sad now?"

Marc just shook his head and went thru the exit. He spoke to Jason who was on guard at the entrance, "The two of us to the duck blind, let'em know we are coming." Jason nodded and Marc entered the pitch black water tunnel as the gateway closed behind him. Mia was already ahead in the darkness as Marc turned on a small flashlight and followed.

In truth, Marc knew he didn't need the flash light, they all knew these tunnels and could navigate them in total darkness if they needed. But a little light never hurt and he wanted to get topside before it got too late in the day so he caught up to Mia who was moving slower in the darkness. The network of tunnels existing under Chicago provided the members of their little family the only real defense against the horde of Souls above. Miles of water, old cable car, and freight tunnels under the city created a labyrinth with multitude of places to hide and allowed access to areas all over the city. They might exist little more than tunnel rats, thought Marc, 'But we've survived down here for years.' He wondered how many real humans still were left in the world. Were there others hiding like they were in major cities? Or groups hiding out in the wilderness in some cave? Marc didn't like thinking too much about it, usually just got him depressed.

"Have fun with the bright eyes last night?" asked Mia, bringing Marc out of his thoughts.

Marc grinned in the near darkness, "Sure did, the Seeker cars are every bit as nice as I hoped."

"Was she there?" spoke Mia with a growl to her voice.

"You mean Bri? Yeah head bitch herself was there."

"Why you not just kill the bright eyes Seeker and be done with it, brother?" asked Mia.

Marc sighed, "Mia, we've been over this before. Killing them just gets them agitated and then they send in a small army of Seekers down here. We don't need to deal with that now."

They turned a corner of the sewer and then crawled through a small hole bringing them to a low ceiling tunnel. Marc continued, "Right now I've got them running around looking for stolen cars and traps in warehouses, gives us a little breathing room. Besides, if we go around killing Seekers, it's going to upset Souls like Auntie and Mathew. We need their help."

Mia considered this, but then asked with hands on her small hips, "Sure that is the only reason? Nothing to do with the pretty face bright eyes Bri wears?"

Marc stopped and looked at Mia. He thought about Seeker Bright Moon stuck in the rope net last night, the athletic blond woman in her black uniform, with her blue eyes ringed with silver as she glared at him. He shook his head and continued down the tunnel, "Gross Mia, let's go."

* * *

####

* * *

Once, when Chicago was a city full of regular humans, before people started showing up with silver in their eyes and a small scar on the back of their necks, there was a Bank in downtown Chicago. There was nothing particularly special about the bank, just one of many in the city. Then the Souls came and Banks were no longer needed. The new Soul Society did away with all money matters, just another part of Human greed the Souls had no need of, and as such the bank building had stood empty for a time.

What was different about the building was at one time during prohibition it had hosted a secret Speakeasy. The entrance was a hidden room on the third floor and a small, private stairway that lead down to the basement where the Speakeasy operated. Numerous remodeling's of the building over the years had left the hidden room and stairway sealed off from the rest of the building and forgotten. Then the old stairway in the basement was found by accident by a small group of humans come up from below searching for supplies. When the Souls came to make use of the empty building, the Humans put a very daring plan into action.

Marc and Mia exited the old freight tunnel to the basement. The entrance to the tunnel was a small grate that anyone on the outside would assume was an old drainage plate to the sewers. After checking around they approached an old and unused bookcase. With a careful push Marc pulled back on the bookcase and a small door opened up leading to a narrow set of stairs going up. The stairs padded to keep sounds down to a minimum and they climbed slowly to not make extra noise.

The Souls had converted the bank building to a store and a number of offices serving their needs. However, due to some very careful editing on the computers storing the new design by Eric, the Souls overlooked a small part of the building. In isolation a small office with an unseen staircase remained behind with only the Humans the wiser. This room allowed the Humans to see a city transformed from human to soul. The name 'Duck Blind' was brought up by someone and the name stuck.

"Brother Dell and Brother Scott!" squealed Mia as they entered the small office.

Dell looked up from the window and frowned at Mia, "Quiet girl, its midday, got to keep the noise down or we scare the natives." Scott, who was writing in a book, looked up at the both Mia and Marc and gave a quick nod and returned to his work.

Mia smiled and pressed her finger to her lips. Marc came up behind her and sat down on a small chair. "How are things?"

Dell stretched and turned from the window, "They pulled that Seeker's car from the fountain a little while ago, that caused a large fuss, but other than that it's been a pretty typical Monday for these guys."

Marc looked out the window to the street below. At first look nothing would seem wrong: crowds of people on the sidewalk busied themselves going in and out of the stores, cars and buses moved up and down the street, and in the park beyond families played. But watch closer and you would see it: on the sidewalk nobody ran, nobody bumped into anyone else, everyone crossed the street only when the signs instructed in neat organized groups, no one driving went too fast, no one honked their horns.

"I always feel like that woman with the Gorillas when watching out the window", said Marc after a while.

Dell frowned, but Scott looked up from his writings, "You mean Dian Fossey – Gorillas in the Mist?" he asked.

"Yeah I guess so, just not sure who the monkey is in this particular world."

"We've learned plenty from watching them. How they work in large numbers, how they interact with each other." said Scott. "Still plenty to learn though, like how Souls in a new-born handle it. I mean you have a soul that is hundreds if not thousands of years old in a body that can barely function on its own…" he trailed off when both Marc and Dell scowled at him. The Souls practice of putting themselves in newborns was one of their more repugnant activities, no one liked to talk about it much.

"It's all fine and good you want to be the Soul Whisper and all." said Dell, "But we need to keep it in the real-world."

Scott ducked his head and returned to his writing, "Right, I know, I know"

Marc sighed heavily and pulled away from the window and turned back to Dell. "OK, down to business. Hopefully after last night fun, we've gotten them looking at every warehouse in the south side. That should give us some room to maneuver."

"You thought of what do with our ill-gotten gains from last night?" asked Dell.

"Obviously we keep the guns and knock out gas." Dell nodded in appreciation, "But the rest is mostly communication gear. I'm thinking we get Eric to rig up something we can leave for them to find in one of the warehouses."

"Fake a pass, and then let them run around the south side trying to figure it out while we do what?"

"Desperate times my friend, we use Auntie" replied Marc.

Dell blew out some air in a heavy sigh; Scott looked up from his observations. "You speak to her?" asked Dell.

"Not yet, need everyone on the same page for this. I figure we'll handle all the heavy lifting, but she will handle securing all the food stuffs. We bring her and the supplies down by the river and presto, no more food shortage" said Marc with a grin.

"She'll have to lie to do this, she won't like it." said Scott.

"I know, but let me talk with her, I know I can get her to do it…" said Marc in reply when he looked over at Mia, "Mia!" The girl had gone up to the window and placed her head on the window and now was rolling side to side.

"So many bright eyes… All creeping! All crawling!" she moaned shaking her head, looking at the crowds below.

Marc grabbed the girl and pulled her away from the window quickly. "Mia, you can't do that, not here. Someone will see." Mia drooped against Marc and stopped moaning. "Mia," he said in a softer tone, "you Okay?"

Mia took a deep breath and then pushed away from Marc. "Mia fine," she said in a subdued voice. "Can I go wait in the tunnel?" she asked.

"Alright, go ahead, but please be quiet about it" said Marc. As she turned to leave, Marc caught sight of the back of her neck, the jagged scar right where an insertion scar would be on a Soul. Unlike a Soul's her scar was an ugly twisted slash that ran across her thin neck. Like every other time he saw it, it would make him shudder. He didn't know what it meant, and that bothered him. He groaned and thought, _'One problem at a time'_

Dell and Scot looked after Mia as she went down the stairs. Scott gave a low whistle, "been a while since she did something like that."

Marc shrugged, "Never going to understand her, just the mysteries of Mia I guess." He didn't want Mia's episode to distract them from their plans. "So are we up for this? It's risky, but I'm not seeing an alternative."

Dell was thoughtful for a few minutes and then spoke up, "No, I'm not seeing an alternative other than hitting a store down town, and I know we would be swarmed by Seekers if we did. So yeah, let's go have a talk with our sweet Auntie."

Marc smiled and got ready to go, "I'll go visit her soon as I can. Hopefully I've got Bri so wound up she'll not see this coming."

* * *

####

* * *

Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow looked over a stack of old documents detailed the old freight tunnels of Chicago. Since coming back from removing her vehicle from the fountain she had thrown herself back into her work. She had lost battles before, but Mac Walters was not going to intimidate her. She was keenly focused on her work and didn't notice when Calm Waters Below sat down beside her.

He cleared his throat, and she looked up. "Seeker, you have had a very difficult day, you should go home and rest."

"Thank you Calm Waters, but I am fine. I am just reviewing the tunnel layouts…" she broke off as Calm Waters put his hand on hers. "Bright Moon on Fallen Snow, you are my friend and as your friend I am…concerned for you."

She looked at him puzzled and he continued, "There some of us who feel you are becoming obsessed with this case. Some even worry you could become unstable. I am not one of those who feel this is the case, but still I am…concerned."

She paused, thinking over what he had said. "I understand what you say, but I am not becoming fixated on the issues of this case", she said, trying to discuss his fears. "The case, as you know, is difficult and simply requires more time and energy to handle."

Calm Waters looked over the piles of paperwork on her desk. "You are searching through paperwork on the tunnels again? We done this many times before, all searches ultimately finding nothing. You see why we worry. "

"He is down there, somewhere. With his resistant fighters, I know it."

"Evidence would point to the rebel Humans using warehouses on the south side of the city and making use of the tunnels only as a way in and out of the city. Please Bright Moon," pleaded Calm Waters, "do not let this Mark Walters bring such suffering to you."

Bright Moon felt the sting of tears in her eyes and she dropped back in her chair. She let out a deep breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Calm Waters patted her hand comfortingly. "Our calling is a difficult one. Many of our brethren don't understand this, and we need to face our troubles together, not alone." Bright Moon smiled and dried her eyes. She looked through the office and saw only a few other seekers still working in the office and then to her watch. "I had not realized just how late it was getting."

"It is not that late, but it has been a trying day for everyone. Simple Sunlight went home not feeling well," said Calm Waters, "Hopefully it is nothing serious."

Bright Moon nodded in agreement and smiled at Calm Waters, "Thank you my friend, you are right, I have become a bit obsessed with these Humans. But give me just a little more time today and then I will go home. I promise."

Calm Waters Below gave her a small smile, "Well I was hoping to get you to agree to some dinner with me, but I know when you have that look..."

"What look?"

"The look that says – I will take on a whole legion of wild humans and still persevere."

She smiled at his small joke. "Handling an army of Humans would be easier than going thru all this paperwork."

"Well then, I will help you…and make sure you do not stay too late."

She thanked him and they both began to check the records of the underground tunnels of the city. The city had grown in a chaotic fashion, typical of humans, and documentation on the many tunnels and underground passage ways were incomplete. The Seekers had searched the tunnels many times before looking for Humans hiding out in them. Earlier when Souls were still settling Chicago the tunnels had been a refuge for humans fleeing from Seekers. They had swept the tunnels often, but in the last few years nothing had been found, leading many to believe that the city was now clean of wild humans. ' _But perhaps they just got better at hiding_ ', thought Bright Moon darkly.

She frowned at one of the documents; it was old and incomplete, but showed a tunnel she didn't recognize from the other maps. She double checked against the records in their computers and confirmed it was not on any other records they possessed. She presented it to Calm Waters with growing excitement. "We've been looking for record just like this, something not on the other maps, someplace we have overlooked."

He looked thoughtful and nodded, "Yes, you could be right, it at the very least we should check it out."

Bright Moon smiled now with certainty, "This time Marc Walters you will not escape me, I will have you yet."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tunnels that Marc and Bright Moon refer to do actually exist - http://www.wbez.org/series/curious-city/six-tunnels-hidden-under-chicago%E2%80%99s-loop-107791


	4. Captured

In the end it took nearly two days before Marc was able to get to Autumn Gusting Wind's home. Embarrassingly this was partly because he had to get some clean clothing, but also travel in the broad daylight required careful planning. Over the last few years, several of their little gang had gotten good at imitating a Soul. Speak quietly, be calm, and be at peace. Don't yell, don't run, and whatever you do, don't be nervous. Not the easiest thing to do when you in the middle of a crowd of them, where everything was just _wrong_ enough to make you jumpy. In Marc's mind, blending in with the Souls of the city wasn't impossible; it just required the right _camouflage._

Before leaving their encampment, he checked in the mirror. Clean shaven, nicely combed hair, dressed in a clean pair of slacks and dress shirt. At one time going above would mean wearing a shirt with a high collar to mask the missing insertion scar, but Simon had taken care of that with a nice fake scar on the back of his neck. He looked just like any other young Soul out for a walk. Well, with one exception, his eyes. But as he left their base behind and readied to exit to the surface he put the final touch to his disguise, contact lenses. After a number of experiments, they had developed a decent set of contact lenses giving them the trade mark sign of a Soul – their silver ringed eyes.

He rode the L train without incident to Autumn's home in the western suburbs of Chicago. Autumn Gusting Wind, known as just Auntie to Marc's group, meet him at her door with a smile. Marc looked her over. Auntie, or at least her body, was a middle age woman with curly red hair with a touch of grey in it. Just a little plump and a little short, she only came midway on his chest. Autumn Gusting Wind herself was one of the kindest Souls he had ever met. She, in Marc opinion, was the very embodiment of what everyone's aunt should look and act like. He bent down and hugged her tightly.

"Marc, so good to see you," she said gently.

"Always good to see you too Auntie," replied Marc. As he pulled back she frowned, looking him in his eyes with his fake silver rings. "Just the contacts, I'll take them off when I get in."

He entered her home and removed the contacts to a little carrying case. "It would distress me if you ever came here and your eyes were not a lie, but actually one of us," spoke Autumn as she watched him. "So odd to think of it that way," she mused.

"Now, don't fret, never going to happen," smiled Marc in reply. "You guys would never want to live in here," he said tapping his head, "way too much crazy up there."

Autumn just smiled and shook her head with slight bemusement, "My little stray, perhaps some of the truest words you have ever spoken."

"Now you sound like Sister Mary-Margret."

"Oh how is she? I have missed talking with her," asked the Soul.

Marc shrugged as they entered Autumn's kitchen which smelled of fresh cookies, "She's doing alright, I guess. She's still teaching our little school, keeping the rest of us in line."

"I would be ever so happy if she came for a visit. She is such a unique person, Human or Soul. And I loved to sing with her," beamed Auntie in remembrance. Then her face fell as she looked at Marc. "What is wrong?"

"Well," sighed Marc, "she is getting on years. Not as spry as she once was. Traveling out here would be more difficult for her than in the past. Right now she hasn't been feeling so good, so she's been resting."

Autumn Gusting Wind looked truly distraught, "Oh is it bad, does she need our medicine?"

"It will be fine, Simon is looking after her and we've got supplies of your magic medicine. She'll be better in no time."

Autumn exhaled in relief and turned back to her stove as she pulled out a tray of newly cooked sugar cookies that Marc was eying. As she worked on her cookies, she raised the question, "Perhaps…I could come visit her? I know you are very protective of your home…you must…but I would be careful."

"Well Auntie", as Marc pulled up a chair, "that's part of the reason I'm here. Got a…big request for you." Marc then laid out in broad strokes their plan for her to visit nearby stores securing their required food. Each order would be small in itself as to not arouse suspicion, but altogether the food gathered would fill a large truck. She would have to drive the truck and handle the pickup of the food, but a select few of them would be with her to load the truck and help her bring it to their base underground.

"It would take a couple of days to do all this, loading and unloading. We would be careful, but if we handle the downtown drop off right, we'll look just like any other truck in the city dropping off food." Marc munched on a sugar cookie and continued, "After that, we would be most happy to have you come visit us. I know a bunch of us altogether makes you a little nervous, but we'll keep our reckless human nature in check", he finished giving her his best grin.

For a full minute Autumn Gusting Wind was silent in thought, Marc was wondering if he should say more when she pulled a new paper out and showed it to him. "I had a feeling you might be coming to see me after I read this." The front page of the paper showed a picture of a Seeker's car stuck in a pool of water. The headline read " **Wild Humans Vandalize Fountain** ". Marc read thru some of the story, privately trying not to laugh at it. A quick glance at Auntie told him she wouldn't appreciate it if he did.

"OK, I'll confess that might have been a bit much, but your Seekers are making life for me and mine very difficult. Well, they always made it difficult, but it's been worse lately." Marc admitted not wanting to explain his private war with Seeker Bri.

"Marc, I think I know you well enough to understand why you do things like this, "spoke Autumn softly, "to you this is just a funny joke. But to us, its anarchy and devastation, a reminder of every dark deed done by Humans in the past."

Marc interrupted, "Now no one was hurt – too much, I made sure of that."

"I know, and I know you and your little family have tried hard not to harm us, to be peaceful, but lately many of us are growing worried by what we hear in the news", explained Autumn.

"If you mean the thing with the dump truck, it wasn't my entire fault..."

She shook her head sadly and turned the paper to another story. Marc read thru it quickly and gave her a confused look. "How is a Soul kid going missing in Seattle my fault?"

"I did not say it was your fault, but we believe Humans are responsible for her disappearance. She's been missing for over six months. Poor little one, her mother is worried sick." Replied Autumn with a truly grieved expression on her face. "Every time there is a story like this, all of us feel the pain of such loss, and all of us grow more fearful of Humans. So you see why actions like yours only make being your friend so much harder", said Autumn with a tear running down her cheek.

Marc looked back at the paper and then took Autumn Gusting Wind's hands in his own. "Auntie," he said gently, "I'm truly sorry for upsetting you." He looked into her silver eyes with own brown ones. "I don't know what to tell you about this girl - Petals Open to the Moon. I don't know why Humans would take her. None of us would do something like this. Please believe me."

Autumn gave a deep sigh and dried her eyes and Marc spoke on, "Look, once we get the food under control, we will do our very best to just disappear and be out of sight. We've got a few ideas on how make the Seekers think we've left the city. Then it can go back to being all quiet and harmonious."

She nodded and then gave Marc a weak smile, "And now you have me lying and stealing for you. How is this for greater good?" Marc looked to come up with a response but she answered her own question, "I suppose if getting the food for you will keep you from harassing Seekers and molesting fountains, then it will be for the best."

Marc looked at her, "Did you just tell a joke?" he smiled affectionately at her.

"Nonsense, we don't find sarcasm funny", she responded with her own affectionate smile. "Your race is truly difficult to be with, but somehow you make it worthwhile."

She leaned into Marc and said in whisper with a smile. "I have new neighbors down the road, a young couple, both of them from the flower world. They just had a baby."

"Well, umm, congratulations are in order," replied Marc, confused about her behavior.

"Yes, but that is not the reason I'm telling you this, the child doesn't carry one of us. Her parents want to raise her as a human."

Marc raised his eyebrows, "Really?" he spoke in soft wonder, "Guess there might be some hope for us yet."

"There may indeed be, perhaps one day you can meet little Starlight Gleaming."

"I'd like that. I hope her parents will be ready to raise one of us. We can be real terrors when we hit our teenage years. I know I was…" said Marc.

"You were not so bad as I remember", replied Autumn.

"Well, I did most of my hell raising away from you. Didn't want to scare you too much."

It was getting later in the afternoon and Marc rose to get ready to leave. "So tomorrow?" Autumn Gusting Wind grinned and got up as well. She started packaged her remaining cookies into a bag and handed to it to Marc. "Yes I will make arrangements and get a truck today", she answered firmly.

As Marc put in his contacts he gave her a hug and quick kiss on the forehead. "Thank you Auntie, so much." She followed him out to the front door. At the door she looked him up and down, "My little stray, you are all grown up now." She hugged him again and he nodded, "See you tomorrow Auntie."

After Marc left Autumn Gusting Wind went back to her kitchen and began cleaning up. She did so enjoy cooking, and pleased when Marc or one of his friends came to visit for they loved her food. They had always treated her so kindly, it seemed impossible that they could be vicious like the Seekers claimed.

She coughed, as an odd dryness filled her throat. She went and put on some tea. She sighed and sat down. Getting all this food would be difficult. She tried not being worried about what she would need to do. Marc would be there with her and he always knew what do. She coughed again and felt a chill go thru her. She turned back to the tea. Yes, some nice warm tea would be just what she needed.

* * *

####

* * *

It was nearing supper time by the time Marc got back into the tunnels. There were more Seekers in the downtown area today and he was being careful. He wasn't sure if they were looking for anyone particular or not, but best be cautious. He waited at the CTA station while passengers moved off, getting ready to jog down one of the tunnels when the coast was clear. As he waited Scott came up behind him, he had shadowed him the entire day. He did trust Autumn Gusting Wind, but there was always risk she might become compromised without her knowledge, so Scott had followed at a discreet distance making sure nothing happened. They never traveled above ground alone, safety in numbers.

"So how did it go?" asked Scott.

"She's getting a truck as we speak."

"Very good," he replied, but kept his voice from being too joyous as a family of Souls walked by.

Once they were out of view and no one else was around they both leaped down from the platform and ran quickly into the nearby tunnel. They didn't go far before they came to a door, and old maintenance access. Most would find it locked, but when you pulled just right on the knob and gave it a quick pull up the door opened easily. They both slipped in and moved along the tunnel till they reached and old grate in the floor. Again the grate looked unmovable, until you pushed down in just the right space and then the screen opened easily. Taking a quick look around to make sure no one had followed both Scott and Marc disappeared down the small opening and moved down the sewage drain way.

"You notice the extra Seekers?" inquired Scott as he removed his contacts.

"Yeah, I'm hoping that's just cause of the fountain, not that they are getting ready for something else," answered Marc, "You know we made the papers on that?"

"Really?" said Scott as they turned from the drainage tunnel to an old, abandoned access tunnel for unused steam pipelines. "I would figure they wouldn't want to report on something negative like that."

"Guess they figure it was public enough that ignoring it wouldn't work," said Marc, "We'll need to get with Eric, but we might be able to use this when we go to distract them when moving the food in."

"Good, good, what's in the bag?"

"Umm, cookies…" answered Marc defensively.

"Auntie's cookies," said Scott excitedly, "Let me have one."

"Come on, let's get back. I'll share with everyone."

"Not fair, you get to visit Auntie and have cookies. I get to wait around scoping out her house and looking for trouble. All the while having to pretend I'm a Soul needing directions home or looking to see if there is an open house in the neighborhood for me and my partner to move into. It is both incredibly nerve-racking and very boring," grumbled Scott.

"Fine, if you're going to be a baby about it," replied Marc and he passed the bag off to Scott. Who quickly snatched a cookie and started devouring it. They had come to the end of the access tunnel and now squeezed thru a small passageway that leaded into the freight tunnels bellow. Only one could go at a time and Marc started first. He bent down on his hands and knees and crawled forward. He didn't want to think about how dirty his clothes were getting and he would need to clean them again for tomorrow's exertion.

He pulled himself out and stood up, blinking in the light. ' _That's wrong'_ thought Marc _, 'there shouldn't be any light down here'._ But there was light, a bright flood light illuminated the small tunnel. As Marc's eyes adjusted to the increased light he could see many darkly dressed people waiting in the tunnel. One of bodies then stepped forward, "Hello Marc, we've been waiting for you," said Bright Moon on Fallen Snow.

* * *

####

* * *

Scott ran, he had seen the light in the tunnel come on suddenly and heard the Seekers. At that point he knew they were it trouble if the Seekers were down here in force and no one had seen them. Had they found their home? Had they gotten someone and turned one of his friends into the enemy?

His mind raced as he returned down the corridor they had just traveled. He looked behind him and saw no sign of pursuit. Taking no chances he turned down a different path and exited into one of the main water ways for the city. Luckily there had been little rain recently and the tunnel was mostly dry. He stopped and caught his breath. He had left Marc behind, but what else could he do?

' _Stay calm, need to figure out how they breached us, get an alert out'_ he told himself. _'Maybe if we are lucky we can get to Marc in time'_. He didn't want to think about the alternatives. With that Scott ran into the darkness.

* * *

####

* * *

Marc looked around in what seemed like a very long second. Time just seemed to hang for a moment. Seekers…when it came right down to it, for all his tricks, all his plays in dealing with them, there was only one rule when dealing with the Seekers…Run.

Time restarted in one heart beat and Marc was already turning and pushing back away from the light source ahead. There was someone behind him, he didn't know who and it didn't matter, he punched out and hit someone in lower chest. There was an "OFFF" sound and he rushed past a seeker doubling over. But there were many behind and still more in front of him.

One seeker grabbed on to his left arm and tried to push him against the wall of the tunnel. "Please don't hurt yourself, you'll be injured if you resist", he said in the annoyingly calm demeanor they all seemed to have. Marc didn't hardly slow down at all, but brought his right fist dead-on into the man's jaw. He then pivoted and sent the moaning seeker crashing into the other one trying to get behind him. "Worry about yourself, asshole", spat Marc.

A tall woman with dark hair tackled him on his right side and brought up her hand with their small canister with the words PEACE written on it. She went to spray it in his face when he dropped to his knees and pushed forward as hard as he could. It wasn't enough to shake her off but the puff of gas went over his head harmlessly. There were sounds behind him and someone clutched him roughly around his waist. The female seeker was trying to bring her hand down with her bottle of knock out gas as Marc got pulled back by the Seekers behind him. There was only a moment to spare, and Marc latched on to her wrist with his free hand and pushed her hand and the wretched bottle into the face of his attacker behind him. There was a soft groan and the larger man behind him collapsed.

He needed to get up and moving but this was difficult with both the sleeping seeker on his legs and the woman fighting madly to break free of his grip and use her remaining PEACE on him. Marc had the sickening realization they were not trying to kill him. Only incapacitate him. And he knew exactly what that meant – Insertion. The realization gave him an extra burst of adrenaline as he pushed clear of the seeker on his legs and pushed off the woman. He pushed himself forward when something hit in the back that forced him to spin around from the blow. He came up ready for the fight and saw Bright Moon before him.

"Enough of this," she warned and was already pushing her own can on him. He brought his left hand down on her wrist and jabbed out with his right to knock her away. She countered with her free hand at his hastily thrown jab and twisted her hand with the sprayer away from his blow. _'Damn, she does learn new tricks'_ he thought. He wasn't fast enough as turned the spray on him as puffed a large dose into his face. "You..bitch…" he managed to wheeze out and then the darkness took him.

* * *

####

* * *

Scott reached one of the corridors he had looked for and bent down and searched along the old masonry that made up the wall. He pulled on a small section of wall looking no different from the rest of the ancient tunnel. But it came away easily and reveled in the dim light of his pen flashlight a telephone. He yanked up the receiver and pressed several digits and prayed someone would pick up.

He waited only a few seconds and then heard Eric's sleepy voice on the other side. "Hey man, why are you calling on the drainage phone?"

"Stanley Kubrick was a complete and utter hack!" yelled Scott.

There was a pause on the other side of the phone. Scott squeezed his eye closed and hoped for the response that would be coming.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN?" came Eric's fuming response.

"Sorry! Sorry! Just had to make sure you were you", came Scott's explanation in a rush.

Scott could feel tears of relief from Eric's defensive response of his beloved film maker. "What do you mean he was hack, he was a visionary…" ranted Eric on the other side of the phone.

"Eric, shut up! They have Marc!"

"What!?"

"Damn it, we got ambushed and I was able to get away. Somehow they have gotten down here without us know it. I don't know how many."

Eric only took a moment to think it over. "Okay," he said his voice getting calm. Scott could hear him take a deep breath, "Okay," he said again. "Where were you when they jumped you?"

"Down by the second access tunnel and the freight tunnel interchange," replied Scott. He could hear Eric swear on the realization on how close they were to their home.

"Alright, get back over there, I'm sending in everyone. Looks like we are going to war."

* * *

####

* * *

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow straightened her jacket and looked down at her captured human. Marc Walters was on his back, his chest moving in slow rhythms. She knew she shouldn't, but was so excited. She was unable to keep her enthusiasm out of her voice. "He is down and unconscious. We have him." Several other Seekers nodded in approval. Marc had not gone down easily. Four other Seekers injured in his attempted escape.

"Help me bring him back into the center of the light. We'll begin insertion here," instructed Bright Moon, "Seeker Twice Fires, please attend to the wounded."

She worked with several other Seekers to pull Marc back into the bright lights of the flood lamps while Twice Fires began to work on healing the Seekers hurt by the wild Human. They quickly readied a small surgical space and placed Marc face down upon it.

"Shouldn't we move back to the surface?" asked Calm Waters Below. He looked around. While the flood lights connected to a large battery pack gave illumination to the surrounding area. The tunnels here stretch out in several directions, all of them very dark.

Bright Moon sat down before Marc and answered, "No, I do not want to give his companions any chance to try to stage a rescue. We will only need a few minutes here" She looked Calm Waters over. "Are you alright?" He was sweating profusely and looked more than a little pale.

"I am fine," he said with a visible effort.

"Please rest my friend, we shall have a busy night tonight," said Bright Moon with a small smile. Calm Waters agreed and sat down beside her. From a sealed box she pulled a small metallic cylinder. She looked at the cryotank and prepared to open it when she caught the sound of something from the tunnels.

She motioned to several of the other Seekers, "Prepare a perimeter, and use the night vision tools. Do not let anyone into this tunnel." The other seeker bowed their heads in agreement and formed a circle around the two Seekers as they began to work on Marc.

Once again they heard the noise. It sounded like someone singing.

The Seekers looked between each other with a mix of confusion and apprehension. Again the sound of some unknown melody came from all directions.

Bright Moon cut a small line on the back of Marc neck. She noticed he already had a small scar, but it was not a real insertion scar. _'Clever,'_ she thought, _'Soon enough it will be a real insertion'_. She wiped away some blood from the cut and used both some CLEAN and SEAL to stop further bleeding. Calm Waters handed her the cryotank, his hands shaking a little. She gave him a worried look, but he gave a small smile and she continued.

The singing voice returned again, this time loudly and from above.

Seekers looked up, but there was nothing but rock above them. Well almost all rock, near the center of the tunnel intersection was a small tube. An air shaft that lead to an above tunnel to allow for a small measure of air to flow through. It was too small for a regular human to move through.

"Hold your positions," instructed Bright Moon, "They are trying to distract us; they can't attack us though that tube." However she was quickly proved wrong when a large scraping sound came from the air shaft and a gleeful voice squealed from above, "Look out below!"

With a whoop a small dark-haired girl landed in the center of the Seekers. Her clothes ripped and several spots on her arms and legs bleeding where she had forced her way through the air shaft. She smiled broadly and pulled two long knives from her belt, one for each hand.

"Hello Bright Eyes," called the girl, "Mia Is Here."


	5. Assembled

Dell was scrubbing the remaining potatoes in the bag in front of him and preparing for dinner. Unless he was mistaken, this was the last of the potatoes and he would be forced to become 'creative' by tomorrow's meal. He hoped Marc and Scotts' visit to Auntie had gone well today. He didn't handle going incognito among the Souls as well as Marc or Scott, being in a crowd of them made him feel jumpy. But they all had their talents, and while he had busted more than few heads in his rough-and-tumble youth, he enjoyed the simple action of making dinner for the group today.

It was as he finished with the potatoes that Eric burst into the kitchen area and ran up to Dell. His face was white and eyes wide. Dell immediately set down his work and felt his stomach drop… _'something is very wrong'_ he thought as he looked at the older man.

Eric only needed three words to confirm Dell's worst fear, "They have Marc."

Dell tensed and was ready to ask more but Eric continued in a hurry, "A team of Seekers ambushed Scott and him in the tunnels. Scott got away but last he saw, Seekers had surrounded Marc."

Dell uttered a string of profanities, his face going hard, "Where are they?"

"Dell, that's the thing, they are down at the interchange, and they are practically right on top of us!" exclaimed Eric.

"How the hell did they get so far?!" he thundered.

Eric shook his head rapidly, "I don't know…the motion trackers didn't go off and Tim and Ross are handling guard duty and didn't see a thing."

"Who else knows?"

"I found you first after getting off the phone with Scott", replied Eric. "I told him we would send in everyone…I mean this is it…isn't Dell?" asked Eric voicing the question they all feared would one day come when the Seekers finally found them.

Dell nodded gravely, "God damn right it is, let's get everyone rounded up."

* * *

####

* * *

"Simon, really, you don't need to fuss over me so much," intoned Sister Mary-Margret, "Isn't Sarah due for her monthly checkup?"

Simon frowned down at his patient. Well it was hard to call the elderly Nun a patient, she refused to stay in bed and would continually be a nuisance to himself with his other patients. He gently pushed down on the Sister so she remained in bed. "You really need to rest; you've had a fever for the better part of a day. And I don't like the way your lymph nodes are looking."

"My _nodes_ are fine", she affirmed, slapping his hand away.

He looked down at the frail old woman, considered his options, and then went from broke. "Lay down or I will tie you down." She narrowed her eyes and held his gaze, but Simon wasn't having any of it. "I have a rope in my closet. I'll go get it now."

The Nun sighed and then laid back in the bed in their makeshift hospital. The hospital was located in the remains of an old cable car tunnel under La Salle Street. When quiet Simon could hear traffic on the street less than sixty feet above, when the L train passed by the room would shake and the lights would flicker. As a place to practice medicine, it left a lot to be desired, but Simon had worked in worse.

"There isn't any need for this", protested Mary-Margret, "You gave me a dose of that fancy Soul medicine, I'll be fine."

Simon gritted his teeth. He hated using _their_ medicine, even if he couldn't deny its success. He had spent months studying it but was no closer to understanding how it worked. Of course his lack of equipment was the biggest reason in his lack of progress. "I know", he replied irritated, "gave you a dose of INSIDE HEAL and COOL, but its not working. Supposedly this stuff doesn't have an expiration date, but I'm going to try a different container."

The Sister was about to reply when Tim rushed into the room, anger seemingly pouring off the teenager in waves. "The Seekers got Marc! We all need to head down to the hall!" he raged as he shifted from foot to foot. His excitement and anger joined to create a nervous energy as waited for them to respond.

"Peace boy," said Sister Mary-Margret with a tone that implied she wasn't going anywhere till she had heard his story in full. "What are you going on about?"

Tim took a deep breath and calmed slightly, "All I know is what Dell told me. Marc and Scott got ambushed in the tunnels by Seekers and Marc was captured. And I am to bring everyone down to the great hall right away."

Simon and Mary-Margret exchanged grim looks and then nodded to Tim. Simon moved over to the nun, "I'll help you Sister."

"Oh posh, I'm not helpless," rasped the Nun as she pushed herself up and off the bed. "Tim, you lead the way, let's find out what's going on."

* * *

####

* * *

"OK, Kate you take Jason and Mike and head up thru the south tunnel. Meet up with Scott and you'll come at them from there. I'll take the rest and hit them from the west tunnel", explained Dell to the group of men and women making up their impromptu army.

The lithe Latino woman gave a quick nod as she loaded her rifle. About her others did the same as weapons and ammunition were quickly passed out. When Dell and Eric had sounded the alarm, they had all come together quickly and organized without orders. What they lacked in professional training was more than made up by years of being hunted by the Souls. They were all survivors, all enduring the impossible. Forged together by the simple fact they were Human, now such a rarity, they were all family. And nothing brought family together faster than when they were under threat.

Tim rushed into the hall, with Simon and Mary-Margret following slower behind him. Simon helped the older woman to sit down before turning to Dell. Tim was already picking up a gun when Dell pulled it away from him and handed it over to Simon.

"Com'on Dell. Give me a gun," complained Tim.

"The hell I am," grumbled Dell, "You'll end up shooting yourself or someone else. Simon here knows how to use this," as Simon took the pistol and Tim scowled.

"Dell, is this as bad as it sounds?" asked Mary-Margret softly.

Dell took sight of Nun and stopped what he was doing. He bent down to take her small hands in his big ones. "Yes," he responded somberly, "They are right on top of us, we don't know how many, and by this time Marc is either dead or has taken over." Mary-Margret closed her eyes and whispered a prayer. Then she opened her eyes and they shined with firm resolve. "What do you need us to do?"

He straightened up and looked at Simon and Mary-Margret, "Sorry to drag you down here, just to turn you around, but I'll need you two to take the kids and anyone else that isn't going into the fight back to the hospital. Lay low, if you don't hear anything from us in half an hour, assume the worst. Simon looked about as others were gather supplies. Soon they may all be on the run. A feeling of desperation hung in the air. He sighed and nodded to Dell. "I'll take care of them."

Dell looked around at the remaining people in the hall, frowning, "Where the hell is Mia?"

* * *

####

* * *

Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow looked at the girl in disbelief. It should have been impossible for anyone to fit thru the air shaft but the adolescent wild Human had done so. The girl grinned at the Seekers with a predatory smile. Bright Moon shuddered; it was as if a Claw Beast from the Mist World had been shrunken down to human size and let loose among them.

"Let's play a game," said the girl quietly. She looked directly at Bright Moon and her smile went even wider. The seeker never took her eyes off the girl's knives. "I know! Let's play kick the can!" and at that the girl lunged at Bright Moon.

Bright Moon went into a defensive posture, and was already pulling out her pistol, when she realized she had focused on the human's weapons and not where her feet were going. She stopped pulling out her gun and reached for the cryotank. All too quickly the wild human's foot made contact with the still sealed cryotank. With a loud ping the tank bounced away down a dark tunnel.

"No!" cried Bright Moon. Already two seekers were running after the lost cryotank. She turned back to the wild human as the girl shrieked, "Goal!" She grabbed the girl by her dirty shirt but yanked her hand away as the human swung her knife in her left hand up and nearly cut into Bright Moon's arm.

"Touch me again and loose fingers", growled the girl. Behind her Seeker Twice Fires was coming at her fast. His big body closing the distance and he warped his big hand around the girl's right wrist and yanked her back. He twisted on the small arm and forced the knife from her hand. The human went wild with a scream and thrashed wildly against Twice Fires. She kicked out and managed to knock the larger man off-balance.

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow pulled her previously forgotten pistol out and took aim on the struggling girl. Something deep within her made her pause. The human was barely older than a child, definitely no bigger than one. For a moment she considered other options. She shook herself. No, this human was the very definition of wild, she had to stop her. But the pause had given the girl time to bring her free hand up with her remaining knife and she threw it out. The knife sailed out, not directed at any seeker, but precisely aimed for the battery back in the center of the tunnel. The blade sunk deep into the main power lead. With a loud "BZZZZ" and then a pop the lights in the tunnel went out.

The sudden darkness threw the Seekers into confusion as they went to turn on their night vision goggles. Bright Moon fumbled with hers. There was a loud cry of pain and then several shouts. She pulled the goggles on and switched them on. The black tunnel resolved itself into a green glow and she made out the form of Twice Fires. He was kneeling and cradling his right hand, and didn't have his night vision goggles on.

She moved over to him, several other Seekers moved to help. "No, keep the perimeter," she informed them. With the lack of light and the confusion brought by the human girl they were now very vulnerable to counter attack. They moved back into place, all of them looking very wary into the tunnels beyond.

"She bit me," he explained as she examined his wounded hand.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know, she bit down on my hand and then ran," as he pulled on his own night vision equipment.

Bright Moon looked around but couldn't see the girl. The night vision goggles only provided a narrow vision of the black tunnel. Still at the center of the tunnel Marc and Calm Waters Below hadn't moved. She moved to check the battery pack, to see if it could be repaired when the girl jumped into her view and swung her small fist at Bright Moon's head.

Even with no light, no night vision, the girl still moved rapidly and found contact with her fist. Small but strong the blow knocked Bright Moon's head back, but the seeker recovered and grabbed on to the girl's arm and twisted it back. With the night vision goggles she still had the advantage over the blinded human. She then pushed down and brought the wild human to her knees. "Stop this child, you will be still."

But the girl just laughed, "Oh you bright eyes, Bright Moon, just not that bright. Game has changed!"

Bright Moon saw something in the girl's free left hand. She yanked it away from the girl and looked at it. In the green glow of the night vision she saw the tube was a bottle of AWAKE, an empty bottle of AWAKE.

"Brother not sleeping now!" cried Mia.

* * *

####

* * *

Dell looked down the tunnel passage, only a moment before there had been light ahead but now it had gone dark and he heard several shouts. ' _It's got to be the Seekers'_ , he thought, _'but what the hell was happening?'_ Scowling he pulled his rifle up and looked through the attached night scope. In the dim green view of the scope he could just make out two men standing at the mouth of the passage.

"Hold up", he whispered to his group. In quick fashion his small group stopped and hunched down. Experts in these tunnels, they had moved up the tunnels to the stationed Seekers silently and without light. Dell looked again thru his scope; defiantly Seekers and they were wearing a pair of night vision specs. They were close, but still far enough away to not let their equipment pickup on Dell's approaching team. Dell smiled to himself, _'If they want to play in the dark we have just the thing for that'_

"Hand me the flare gun," he commanded. In the dark, the small flare gun got pressed into Dell's hand. "When this goes off we go in, got it?" there were soft but enthusiastic responses in agreement.

Dell took aim down the corridor and pressed the trigger.

* * *

####

* * *

Bright Moon held the girl down and looked up quickly to see what had happened to Marc, but suddenly there was a spark of light in the tunnel beyond. Within a heart beat the light exploded into the tunnel, the night vision gear overloading from the sudden increase in light. Momentarily blinded she groped around, she felt the girl Mia twisting, trying to pull free. She brought herself up and yanked the ineffective goggles off. The tunnel was alight in the glow of a flare bouncing off the wall of the tunnel and then rolled to a stop, shadows jumping and splaying in the tunnel as the flare burned.

Around her, her fellow Seekers were also blinded by the flare, and they groped to pull off their own night vision gear. Suddenly a shot rang out, followed quickly by two more. She was about to order them to pull back, everything was going wrong very quickly, when someone stepped out of the shadows before her.

Marc Walters, his face a mask of fury, stood in front of her. Before she could even begin to react he punched out, his right cross connecting with jaw with enough force to knock her right off her feet. She went down in a heap and didn't move.

Within seconds other Humans were pushing their way into the tunnel. Several of Seekers tried to resist, but they were quickly overpowered by the more numerous humans. They took in the very surprised Marc and the very smug Mia. Behind the band of his fellow humans, Dell spoke up, "Marc and Mia, let me see your eyes." He pulled a blond-haired seeker along with him as he made his way through the crowd. Effortlessly he tossed the man roughly against the wall, "Someone tie this asshole up", he said as he glared down at the terrified seeker. Again he made his request to Marc, this time with a note of warning in his voice.

Marc looked confused at Dell, but then understood. "Right, Right, here", he said as he pulled out a small pen light and shone it in his eyes and then Mia's, revealing them both to human. He took a deep breath and let it out in a shaky sigh. "Damn, that was close", he looked over to Mia, "Mia, you stopped them", he said softly.

"I'm very distracting", beamed Mia.

"Yes you are", replied Marc with a grin.

He looked around the now crowded tunnel, taking in the captured Seekers. "How many we have, Dell? I'm pretty sure I counted at least eight when they jumped me."

Dell did his own survey, "I count ten."

"Make it twelve altogether", said Kate as she, Jason, Mike, and Scott pushed two bound and gagged Seekers into the tunnel from the south entrance. "We found these two running after this", she held up the Cryotank, "We _encouraged_ them to take a time out."

Marc looked over at the Cryotank and paled. "I bet that was for me." He then reached back and felt his neck with hand. He cringed as he felt the cut along his neck. He asked, "Ahh…Dell, can you make sure there is nothing in my neck?"

* * *

####

* * *

' _I failed'_ , thought Bright Moon on Fallen Snow, as she was frog-marched along with her fellow seekers into the unknown depths of the underground labyrinth. When she had come to she saw her fellow Seekers being tied up and led away into the darkness. She had pulled herself to her knees and then felt the barrel of a gun in the back of her head. Marc's voice had come from behind her, "Bad move, Bri, _really bad move_ ", he said through clenched teeth.

She thought for a moment he would shoot her right then and there, but instead she had been bound, gagged, and blindfolded. Now as she trudged along she could only contemplate her failure. _'I was rash. I should have come with more Seekers'_. But Skyward Into the Night had only authorized a small search party, the tunnels searched so many times before. Nevertheless when she had caught Marc coming through the tunnel she knew she had been right along.

But her victory was short-lived. The speed at which his fellow Humans had come to Marc's aid meant they had to be close by. _'Now what will happen?'_ she considered. When she failed to report in, the other Seekers would know her find was the correct one. They would come in force, and Marc and his rebellious allies would be crushed. But she thought with a sinking feeling, _'I will not live to see it.'_ These barbarians would either torture or kill her team. She shuddered at the thought.

Presently the hands with a tight grip on her brought her to a stop. Even without the blindfold she could tell they had moved in near darkness in these tunnels, however, now there was just the faintness glow of light coming through the covering on her eyes. They pulled her up an incline and she could hear the sounds of doors being opened and closed. Then the light grew brighter and the air was warmer and much less stagnant than in the tunnels.

Here there was much more noise, a sound of many people, voices rising and falling rapidly. It was not like when she was among her unobtrusive family. Souls were calm and peaceful in all situations. Now she heard the loud and chaotic noise of wild humans. She tried not tremble. "Here, bring her over here", said someone roughly, as she got pulled along sideways and pushed down into a chair. She sat in darkness for a minute and then the blindfold was pulled off.

She sat blinking and looked around. The room was small and dirty, there was only one small light overhead. A middle-aged human holding a gun stood to her side. He looked down at her with a mix of anger and fear. She met his gaze, willing herself to not show any fear. He looked like he was about to say something when the door to the little room opened and Marc Walters came in.

"I got it from here, Mike", said Marc

The other human looked at Marc with uncertainty, "You sure?"

"Yeah, this really won't take long", replied Marc

Mike shrugged and headed out the door. After he left Marc and Bright Moon looked at each other for a moment. Marc shook his head slowly, "Well we really are into it now, aren't we?"

"If you think I'm going to tell you anything", began Bright Moon.

Marc held up his hand, "I know Seekers well enough to know you aren't going to co-operate no matter what I do."

"Give up, surrender to me, I will ensure…"

"You guys have a lousy sales pitch", said Marc cutting her off, "Does that line ever work?"

She just stared at him. After a moment he sighed. He looked almost…sad, she thought, _'What is he planning?'_

"I've got a question", he said almost gently, "maybe you'll answer me maybe you won't. Do you remember the first time we meet?"

She blinked at him, confused at his question, she did remember. She slowly nodded. "You were down at the old river entrance of the drainage tunnels. Marching around there like you owned the place. I practically ran right into you", said Marc, "You surprised the hell out of me."

"I remember you grabbed my gun and threatened me with it", said Bright Moon evenly.

"Well you fumbled around with it so much, you were likely to shoot yourself as me", smiled Marc at the memory, but then stopped smiling as he looked down at her. "Remember what I told you?" he continued, "Leave us alone, we'll leave you alone."

She looked at him, her gaze steady, but with a glimmer of irritation she said, "What do you want from me?"

"I want to know - why? Why you couldn't you just leave us alone? We were not hurting anyone. We just wanted what little we could eke out in this hell you made of the world."

"Do you really think we would let you and your band of insurgents live down here, planning your attacks on us, building your traps, and who knows what else", she answered.

"Insurgents!" said Marc with an angry laugh. "What the hell do you think we are?"

"You are a den of killers in our city."

"Killers! _Your_ city!" Marc fumed with anger. "Really, want to see your den of killers?" He leaned forward, grabbed her, and yanked her to her feet. He pulled her forcefully along and opened the door. He pushed her out and she dropped to her knees.

"There," he spat, "There is your den of killers."

She looked out and gasped at what she saw. The room before her was huge, at least sixty feet tall and more than two hundred across. Multiple entrances ran in and out of the hall and above many lights tied together to give this huge room a near daylight level of brightness. And among this hall were people…many people…all human.

"There are so many", she said in soft surprise. She saw at least two dozen, young children, older couples, and spectrum of ages in between. They were all in middle of frantic activity of packing and preparing. Some of them near to her stopped what they were doing when they saw her and Marc. They looked at her with fear in their eyes.

"Yes, so many, and the only thing they are guilty of is being human," said Marc as he pulled her back up. He pushed her back into the room and into her chair. "So there you have it. I guess I was a fool to think just maybe we could have a small slice of life here. But I guess you guys just can't see any other way – We are all killers."

Bright Moon looked at him, still confused by what she had seen. "What are you going to do?"

"Well, Bri," said Marc bitterly, "I guess I'm just supposed to do what I'm meant to do. And you get to do what you're meant to do." He paused thinking it over, "I get to be the barbarian human and you get to be the Seeker with a bullet to the back of the head."

* * *

####

* * *

Simon packed his medical gear into his bag. He debated about what he needed to bring and what could be left. He glanced down at his makeshift desk. Papers, books, and a few empty cartons of HEAL sat on it. His eyes focused on a small picture on the desk, _'No, can't forget this.'_ His only remaining photo of her…his Annie. He picked the photo up and put into his pocket. He sighed; this place had really begun to feel like home, even without her. Now the Seekers would be coming and he would be on the run again.

Behind him, Sister Mary-Margret worked at finishing up packing up the hospital. They wouldn't be likely to resupply with Soul medicine any time soon. He turned back to her to see if she needed any help. She was leaning heavily on a table.

"Sister, are you OK?" he asked in alarm.

"I'm fine…just need…a," she said but even as she spoke she swayed and fell. He caught her before she hit the floor. Her skin was hot to the touch. She moaned in his arms.

"Somebody help me here!" he yelled.

* * *

####

* * *

Tied up with the other Seeker and placed in a small room, Calm Waters Below whole body shook and it was not from fear. He wondered what the Humans had done with Bright Moon on Fallen Snow. His whole body ached and he felt so very cold. He should have not gone on this mission to the tunnels; he should have gone and seen a healer. But Bright Moon had needed him. And there was nothing he wouldn't do for her.

His throat was dry. We wanted to ask the Humans for some water…but these torturous beings would never give him any.

He sat and stared blankly at the wall…waiting.

* * *

####

* * *

"Darren, good of you to come in," said Healer Leaves Falling.

"Oh, it's no trouble, I'm always happy to help," said Darren as he entered the hospital. He looked around. The emergency room had more people in it then he would have normally expected.

"Is there a problem?" he asked at little concerned.

"Well," said Leaves Falling, "we are getting a lot of people coming in complaining of fever and persistent cough. We are giving dosages of INSIDE HEAL and COOL. We just need a little help distributing the medicine."

Darren smiled broadly, "Like I said, I'm here to help, let's get started."


	6. Affliction

"Man, this one worm here is sick," said Ross.

Jason looked down at the Seeker Ross was referring to. He did indeed seem to be sick, his skin pale and clammy, and his breath coming in wheezing gasps. He looked at the other captured Seekers in the room they were guarding. None of them seemed ill like this one. Jason considered for a minute on what to do about, finally he shrugged. "They are all going to be dead soon, wouldn't really worry about him having a cold."

The Soul in question flinched as he heard the humans. He slowly looked up at the two men, "What have you done with Bright Moon on Fallen Snow?" asked the sick Seeker in a raspy voice.

"You mean the head Seeker, the blond-haired woman?" said Ross. The Seeker slowly nodded and Ross responded, "Marc is talking with her right now."

Jason snorted derisively making the Soul jump, "Talk? Man lucky if that is all…I saw the way Marc was looking at her after we rescued him in the tunnel, looked like he was ready to throttle that Seeker right then and there."

"Please, I would like to speak to her…before the end." came a weak reply from the Seeker.

Jason and Ross looked at each other, Ross shrugged but Jason responded in a frosty tone, "What makes you think we are granting last requests? Would you do that for me if our roles were reversed?" The seeker shrank away from Jason's glare, as he continued, "How do I know this isn't some type of trick, maybe you are not even sick."

One of the other Seekers, a big, athletic looking man pushed himself up from where he was sitting. Both Ross and Jason went for their guns. The Seeker looked at the Humans and the sick Seeker judging the situation and seemed to not like what he saw. "Seeker Calm Waters Below, you should not talk with these Humans. They will offer nothing but lies and treachery". He looked pointedly at Ross and Jason, "Your rebellion here is over…we will be coming in force soon."

"That right?" said Ross, "Cause you lot have done a bang-up-job of handling us so far."

"We now know the location of your base of operation. It is only a matter of time." He now stood up and several other Seekers looked up in interest as the large Seeker began to move. Both Humans looked at each other, considering their options as it seemed their prisoners would not remain idle.

Interrupting suddenly, the door to the small prison swung open and Kate came. She looked over Ross and Jason, the Seekers, and finally the big Soul at the end of the room. She pulled her rifle from her shoulder and took aim at the large Seeker.

"Just so you know, a bullet wound to the stomach is very painful, and takes a long time to die from," she said evenly, "So would you please shut up and sit down."

At the sight of the rifle, the other Seekers stopped moving. The large Seeker looked at Kate and her rifle. He sat down, but said in a disgusted voice, "You are animals."

Kate shrugged her shoulders and said, "If you treat people like animals, hunt them like animals, don't be surprised if they turn and bite you like animals."

Kate looked down at the stricken Calm Waters Below and asked him, "So what's your deal?"

* * *

####

* * *

Marc came out of the room that held Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow glowering and stalked over to where Dell and Scott were waiting. Only a few minutes ago he had dragged the Seeker out and showed her the great hall. Dell wondered what had been the point of this, but had given up understanding Marc's odd obsession with the blond-haired seeker.

"Damnable woman," complained Marc as he sat down next to Dell, "I think she believes we are some type of paramilitary outfit."

"You do realize _'she'_ is an alien that basically thinks all of humanity is a bunch of savage monsters that would kill her and her kind at the drop of a hat", said Scott.

Marc gave him a look that bordered between so much outright anger and irritation that Scott held his hands up defensively, "Just saying."

Marc looked away, still angry, and let out a deep breath. Dell regarded his friend for a moment and then said gently, "Marc, look, I know you tried to make this work, tried to figure out how to live here without fighting with the Souls." Marc turned back to Dell and Scott his anger draining away a little.

Dell continued, "Man, when I first came here and heard your plan for surviving here, I thought you were insane. Yet somehow you made it work, and we survived. But the Seekers are never going to let us go and most of the Souls are so wrapped up in thinking how perfect they are that they can't see the horror of what they are doing. This," he gestured at the rooms where the Seekers were being held, "was unfortunately inevitable."

Marc considered Dell's words and his anger dissipated to be filled with glum determination. "Your right, Dell, I guess I'm being a victim of my success. We made it for so long that I thought we were untouchable." He looked back at the room where Bright Moon on Fallen Snow was held and said, "Let's get this over with. Then we are going to get the hell out of here before they send in the rest." He made to get up when Tim ran over to their small group, the boy blurting out, "It's Mary-Margret."

* * *

####

* * *

Healer Leaves Falling looked down at the young soul she was treating, his body's skin flushed and hot to the touch. She had given him a dose of COOL not less than 30 minutes ago and at first the medicine had worked, the fever breaking almost immediately. But now the fever had come back like the medicine had never been used. She examined the bottle of COOL she had used, _'could it be defective'_ , she thought?

Darren came over to her, his normally tranquil features disturbed by a frown on his face, "Healer," he began with some reservation, "I am having some difficulties…the fever is coming back."

She looked at him, an odd feeling beginning in her body's stomach, "I too am having difficulties…this one's fever is returning," she said referring to the boy who lay on the bed before them. Beyond them sat the boy's mother, looking worried as she watched the two healers. "It may be possible that this dose of COOL is imperfect in some way, we should try another", said Leaves Falling.

Darren looked even more uncomfortable and said, "I thought of this as well, I tried a different container of COOL, the same results."

The feeling in Leaves Falling stomach increased uncomfortably, she had rarely felt in such away before. ' _Was this a feeling of dread?'_ she wondered. She did not like it. She looked between the boy and Darren. "We should talk with Healer Matthew", she responded, "He will have insight on this problem."

"Is Rain Drops at Night better now?" asked the boy's mother. She had gotten up from her seat and was looking with faint anxiety at her son and the healers.

Leaves Falling and Darren exchanged looks, Darren did not know what to say. Leaves Falling felt conflicted as well. She did not want to worry the Soul further, but couldn't lie either. She smiled at mother, she had not gotten her name, even though she felt she needed to force herself to do so, "We will be consulting with the Head Healer of this facility, he will know the best course of action."

* * *

####

* * *

Marc took Mary-Margret's hand in his as he sat next to the old Nun. Her long gray hair that was usually tied back in a tight bun lay sprawling around her head on the pillow. Her eyes closed and for the moment she looked serene and peaceful.

"What exactly is wrong with her?" asked Marc to Simon.

"She's been pushing herself far too hard for the last few days, she passed out from a combination of dehydration and exhaustion," answered Simon. "But the real problem is this infection. Nothing I do seems to have an effect on it."

"The Soul medicine isn't working," said Marc with a frown, "When has that stuff ever not worked?"

"As far as I know," said Simon irritably, "never. But I've haven't used it for that long and I have no clear idea how the stuff works. So I can't tell you why it's not working on the Sister."

Marc looked over their improvised hospital sadly. Most of it had been packed up and was ready to go. He placed the Sister's hand back next to her other hand and she stirred slightly but remained asleep. Marc leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. They didn't have time for this, who knew how many Seekers would be down on them. _'But what else can I do? This is Sister Mary-Margret, soul of their community'_ , he considered to himself, _'A lousy hand we've been dealt'._ He opened his eyes and looked at Simon, "Well if their medicine is on the fritz, what else can be done?"

Simon sighed, "Well, not a lot, back before the invasion I would have used a strong, broad spectrum antibiotic to treat this type of infection. Even if we had the time, I don't have the facilities to make something that powerful."

Marc got up and asked, "Can you make sure she not in pain? Get her ready to travel?"

Simon held up a hand, "It's not going to be a good idea to move her now." Marc began to protest, but Simon shook his head and talked over him, "I know, I know, we need to get moving, but right now she's not going anywhere. Also I didn't say I couldn't do anything for her. It's a long shot, but I do have some antibiotics to try."

"You do? I thought that stuff was all long gone and you just said you couldn't make more."

Simon smiled, "Well it's not going be as good as penicillin. But there are some types that aren't too hard to come by. Won't be very strong but right now all we got."

"Okay Doc, you win the award for being awesome," smiled Marc at the mention of any good news, "Just work quickly, no idea how much time we have."

Simon nodded and began to unpack his bag. Marc took one last look at Sister Mary-Margret and then left down the corridor, making his way back to the great hall. He was not looking forward to his next task, it wasn't going to be pleasant, but it was necessary. Along the way he came across Kate coming up from the hall.

She stopped him and asked, "I heard about Mary-Margret, how is she?"

"It's not great, but Simon is trying some stuff. For some reason the Soul medicine we have isn't working on her."

Kate looked surprise, "Really? Does he think something is wrong with it?"

Marc looked up at the ceiling of the tunnel as if he could see to the surface. "I don't know, I'm _very_ tired of anything having to do with a _'Soul'_ ", he said the word Soul with clear contempt for the aliens self-appointed title.

Kate sighed and said, "Look I was going to talk to Simon about this and I know you've got really no reason to care, but some of the Seekers are sick."

Marc looked back down from the ceiling and blinked at Kate, "What do you mean they are sick? You do realize in a very short time that isn't going to matter."

"I do," admitted Kate, "but something weird is going on. I'm not sure if it's something they are scheming at or all together something else."

Marc leaned back against the tunnel wall, "OK, I'll bite. What's happening exactly?"

"So we've got Jason and Ross guarding one group and Scott and I the rest. One of them, a woman starts bleeding from the nose. And I figure she gone and done that suicide trick of theirs. But she's still alive and actually freaking out a bit. She's getting the rest of the Seekers twitchy, so I take her out of the room and clean her up."

Marc looked at Kate, "Not like you to extend a courtesy to one of them."

Kate flopped some of her long hair out of her face, "Well I'm not saying I did, I wasn't sure she wasn't going to try something or that it was a trick. I'm still not sure even now. But she keeps saying 'What did you do to me?', like it's my fault she has a bloody nose. While I clean her up she says she started feeling sick after they came into the tunnels. She thinks we are doing something to poison them."

Marc snorted, "If anything goes wrong in their precious little world, it is always somehow our fault."

"Yeah, so I tell her we aren't doing anything like that. I don't think she believes me, but I put her back with the rest and then go and check on Ross and Jason. Turns out they got a sick one too. But he's different, like he's got a bad case of the flu. All feverish…"

"Like maybe he's got an infection?" interrupted Marc.

"Yeah maybe and get this, he says he was feeling ill before they entered the tunnels, but he took some of their medication. And it didn't seem to work," said Kate looking sharply at Marc.

"And now Sister's got a bug that we can't seem to treat," said Marc with his brow furrowing as he thought through the implications.

"OK, you and Scott bring the sick guy up here to see Simon, be careful, and get some extra guards on the rest of them. Not sure if they are trying something or not, but we need to see what's happening."

* * *

####

* * *

Healer Matthew was talking on the phone when Leaves Falling entered his office. She waited patiently until he finished his phone call. She began to speak to him when she saw just how upset her fellow Soul was. He was frowning deeply, looking more distressed than she had ever seen him. He took a long calming breath and looked up at Leaves Falling, "Yes, Healer, how can I help you?"

"I am sorry to interrupt you, but we are having a problem with some of the patients," began Leaves Falling.

Matthew looked up quickly, "The medication isn't working, is it?"

"Yes, how did you know?" she asked in surprise.

Matthew put his head into his hands for a moment and then looked up, "I just got off the phone with three other medical facilities, each one is reporting an increasing number of Souls coming in with an illness that medicine does not seem to treat. They were calling for help, and now you report the same difficulty here."

Leaves Falling took a shaky breath, the tightening discomfort in her stomach growing, and sat down, "Three others, how could all the medication between four hospitals be bad?"

Matthew looked at her with a pained expression, "It is still worse, there has been a death."

"Oh no," she gasped.

"One of the patients showed rapid progression of the illness and began to bleed from the nose and the ears. Very soon afterwards the body expired" and Matthew said very softly, "and the soul."

Leaves Falling shuddered and looked as though she was about to cry, "What do we do?"

Healer Matthew stood up, "I am a not sure yet, but we must act quickly or there will surely be more deaths. Please show me your patients that are ill."


	7. Mercy

"What exactly do you want me to do with this…person?" asked Simon as he looked over the ill Seeker.

"Well…" began Marc, but realized he wasn't sure what he did want Simon to do. "Look, he's got some of the same symptoms as Mary-Margret. And he's taken medicine that isn't working either. Isn't there something you can learn?"

"Yep," said the doctor briskly, "He's sick, apparently with an illness that is not treatable with Soul medical technology." He looked pointedly at the Seeker, "Too bad for you."

The Seeker, a tall man with dark hair, looked listlessly at Simon and the other humans that had gathered around him. He did seem scared, but his illness had robbed him of any strength to react much more than shrinking away from whomever was nearest to him. He tried to speak, but it came out as a dry cough.

Kate looked at him, shook her head, and then she pulled out a water bottle from a packed box and handed it to the Seeker. He looked surprised, but did take the bottle. He quickly drank all the water. "Th…Thank y…you," he said weakly. He lay still for a moment and then asked in a near whisper, "Where is Bright Moon?"

"Oh…Bri…she's tied up at the moment. Most likely coming up with new ways to drive me nuts," said Marc flatly.

"She doesn't like that name…Bri", explained the Seeker faintly.

Marc was about to respond that he didn't much care what she thought of it when he caught sight of Sarah holding her young daughter in her arms coming into the hospital. At nearly six months pregnant, the challenge of carrying her four-year old Alexis was a difficult one. She looked over the assembled group and took sight of Simon as Kate helped take Alexis from her.

"Simon, I know everything is a mess, but it's Alexis, she gotten a fever and is coughing. Can't you give her something before…" then she looked over at the Seeker and shuddered, "before more of them come?"

Kate put little Alexis down on a pile of boxes as Simon looked her over. "How long ago did the symptoms start?" he asked Sarah.

"Maybe only an hour ago, everyone has been so busy, might be longer."

Simon looked grave as he examined Alexis, "Fever and swollen Lymph Nodes, just like Mary-Margret." He addressed the little girl, "Honey, where do you hurt?"

"Neck, my neck hurts," moaned the little girl.

There was a commotion from the tunnel and Marc had a sudden stab of fear that the Seekers were coming, but it turned out to be Mike and Scott pulling one of the Seekers with them. The Seeker was a tall woman and Marc realized she had been the one in the tunnel trying to dose him with their gas. As Scott and Mike brought her in Marc could see she was bleeding from nose quite profusely and she didn't look like she was conscious.

Scott and Mike laid the female Seeker out as best they could on the ground of the subway tunnel. Mike looked up with surprise at seeing Sarah and Alexis. He went over to his wife and daughter, looking upset. "What's going on?"

"It's Alexis, she's sick", explained Sarah. Mike went over to his daughter and picked up the little girl. She immediately put her arms around her father as he tried to comfort his daughter.

"Sorry to interrupt the interruption", said Simon crossly, "but what the hell is she doing here?" He gestured at the Seeker on the ground before him.

"Sorry, Doc", said Scott, "but didn't know what else to do with her. She started bleeding from her nose again and then went into some type of convulsion." He looked over to Kate, "thought she had done a suicide on us for real this time, but she is still breathing."

Scowling, Simon bent down and examined the fallen Seeker. After a minute he got up and went over to the other Seeker who had watched all of this with mute horror. "What is your name?" he asked the Seeker.

"Calm Waters Below," said the man slowly, not taking his eyes off his fellow Seeker.

"And what is her name?" said Simon pointing at the woman.

"Her name is Allison", answered Calm Waters Below.

"Well, Mr. Below, your friend Allison there is showing all the signs of septic shock. Her breathing is shallow and her heart rate is unsteady. It looks like to me she's fighting a losing battle against one hell of a bacterial infection. How long has she been like this?"

"I do not know, she was fine when we came into the tunnels…"

"Well I find that damn amazing," interrupted Simon, "I would have guessed she was seriously ill for several days given her vitals." Simon turned back to Seeker Allison in deep thought. "We're looking at something that can go from incubation to near death in just under an hour. Must have the mother of all growth factors," mumbled Simon to himself.

"Uhh, Simon, should we be de-contaminated or something…" asked Scott

Simon looked over to where Scott and now the other humans had moved to, all of them keeping some distance from the two Seekers. Simon shrugged, "Bit late for that. By this point whatever they have, we've all been exposed to as well. And if Mary-Margret is any indication, we've all been exposed for some time."

There was a moment of stunned silence among the humans. Marc looked from Sister Mary-Margret, to Alexis and Sarah, to the two Seekers, "What the hell is happening?"

* * *

####

* * *

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow looked up as Marc came into the small room. _'This is it, he is going to kill me'_ , she thought. Before, when he had angrily declared he was no longer going to pretend to be anything other than a savage, she supposed he would end her life right away. But he had stormed off and left her alone. As time slipped by, she kept wondering when he would return and do his bloody deed, but he had not returned. She considered he was finding one more torment to do to her before the end, making her wait and not know when he would return or what had become of her fellow Seekers. She found it to be a particularly cruel form of torture.

"OK, you need to come with me", he said as he pulled her up. He removed the ties on her legs but tied her hands behind her back and led her out of the room. He brought her through the giant room and she could see the Humans working on what she guessed were preparations to try to escape.

She considered if she could attempt an escape herself, Marc did seem very distracted as he brought her into a tunnel. She pulled against him abruptly as they entered the tunnel and tried to break free. Momentarily taken off guard and she managed to break away from his grasp, but with her hands tied behind her back she was off-balance as she tried to run and he caught up to her easily. He pushed her against the wall of the tunnel. She pushed back, struggling roughly against him. He grabbed her by her left arm and twisted her around. He then leaned forward pressing his right arm into her back, pinning her against the wall.

"Just finish this!" she found herself screaming at him, surprised by the anger welling up in her body.

"What !?" he exclaimed.

"Kill me. I know you want to do it. Stop these endless games you play. Your sadistic fun you have at finding new torments for me."

He spun her around and was close now, only a few inches from her face, his face a cloud of dark anger, "Is it really so hard to believe I don't get enjoyment from killing, or torment, or fighting with you!"

"You say that, but your own actions prove that false," she glowered back him.

"Oh really!? You are going to lecture me on torments, huh? How about hunting us like animals, how about closing off every way of getting food and starving us, how about your 'disposal' of humans that don't make a good 'host'?" growled Marc.

"I take no enjoyment from those actions," she said tightly.

"Well your own actions prove that false," mocked Marc, "because you sure had no problem doing them. Hell, not an hour ago you were trying to cut me open and stick one of you into me. Tell me you were not happy to wipe me out!"

Her silver rimmed eyes flared and she kicked off against the wall with her legs, trying to knock him off-balance. He simply countered by pulling back abruptly. With his weight gone she found herself tipping forward and with her hands tied she couldn't stop herself. She crashed into the hard floor of the tunnel.

"Pretty angry for a Soul," remarked Marc above her.

Bright Moon half turned from the floor, "You do this to me, Marc Walters." She pushed herself half up, and a few tears rolled down her cheek. "You do everything in your power to aggravate me, humiliate me, and cause me pain. Yes," she admitted, "I did take pleasure in trying to end you, just like a human would, is that what you wanted to hear?"

Marc regarded Bright Moon for a moment and said, "That you want to kill me, no can't say I'm happy to hear it, but at least your being truthful about your feelings instead of giving me some BS line about it being for the greater good."

She shook her head slowly, "And do you not want me dead? You can honestly say you would take no pleasure from my final death."

He bent down and pulled her up, "Ask me fifteen minutes ago and I would have probably said yes, but right now we are going to have to table our little conflict for the time being. We," he let out a deep sigh, "have a problem."

She frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Some of your people are sick, some of my people are sick. It looks like the same disease," replied Marc.

Bright Moon was quiet for a moment and then she cocked her head and said, "Our mutual hatred aside, my people know of my discovery in these tunnels. They will be here in force soon. Surrender and we will have healers take care of your people who are ill."

Marc rolled his eyes and began pulling her along, "Come with me and see for yourself."

He led her down the tunnel. They walked in silence for a ways. Bright Moon looked about her. The tunnel was old, but it showed signs of being repaired and cleaned up. New lights were strung along at intervals and new reinforcements had been put into place at some of the more worn down areas of the tunnel. Between this and the large hall she had seen she realized the Humans' base was far larger than she would have believed. "How did you hide all of this from us?" she asked as they walked.

Marc looked over to her and said with a small smile, "Not going to tell you all of our trade secrets."

"It is…more than I would have thought you capable of."

"Yes, we monkeys can do all sort of tricks."

She pulled them to a stop, "I did not mean it as an insult. Clearly we underestimated you. You have more resources and skills than we believed possible. My remark is more on our failing to imagine all of this."

"Well you Seekers can certainly be tricky, I learned never to underestimate you," said Marc.

She looked at him with mild surprise, "A complement?"

"An observation, now come on we are nearly there."

He pulled her along again and after a turn in the tunnel the exited into a large underground room. Bright Moon could see at one point this room would have been part of a larger tunnel but either end blocked off and filled in. There were a number of beds and several lockers full of supplies. Here there were more humans who looked at her warily and to her surprise she also saw her fellow Seekers, Calm Waters Below and Allison.

Marc moved her over to Calm Waters, "You," he pointed at Calm Waters Below, "explain the situation to her, she will not listen to a damn thing I have to say." He then looked at Bright Moon, "And you try anything, and Mike and Scott here will shoot you," he gestured over to the two men with guns watching the Seekers. At that he let her go and walked over to another human who was tending to an older woman sleeping on one of the beds.

Bright Moon looked at Marc and the other humans, this situation was beyond bizarre. She regarded Calm Waters Below, he did indeed look very ill. In the tunnels she had noticed his body had seemed to be sick, but he had insisted he was alright and had taken the needed medicine. He should have been fine, but was clearly not.

He spoke with some difficulty, in a low, raspy voice, "Bright Moon on Fallen Snow, I am very glad you are well."

With her hands still tied behind her back she awkwardly took his hand, it was very warm to the touch and she looked at him with deep concern, "Please Calm Waters Below, what is happening? What is wrong?"

"An illness, it seems both the Humans here and we have been exposed to some form of contagion," he broke off and rested for a moment before continuing, "Seeker Allison is the worse off, she is very ill."

"We need to get you and her to a healer," she looked about the room. The two humans guarding her watched her every move. She considered what her options were, escape seemed very unlikely. Could she find a way to get a message to her fellow Seekers? Calm Waters pulled on her hand, interrupting her thoughts.

"Please Bright Moon, please listen to me, I have taken the required medicine and it did not work. The Human Healer, Simon, also tried treating me and Allison."

"They don't have the right…" she broke off as she looked again at the nearby table. Several bottles of HEAL, CLEAN, INSIDE CLEAN, and COOL sat on it. She frowned, "How do they have these supplies?"

"I do not know, but they do," said Calm Waters, "This sickness, it resists our medicine, and Simon believes it spreads very rapidly. We must keep others away, or less we spread it to the population at large." With that he feel back to the bed, the conversation apparently draining him completely.

She looked him over and bent down to press her lips to his forehead, his skin was dry and much too warm. She kissed him lightly, "Rest my friend. I will take care of you." He relaxed and closed his eyes. She looked over to the other bed where Allison lay. The Seeker was not moving and did not seem to be aware. She did see the woman's chest rise and lower slowly and unsteadily. The body did not seem to have much time left. She sat next to Calm Waters thinking on what do next.

This illness didn't seem possible, yet it was. Bright Moon was not a healer, but as a Seeker she knew enough about their medicine and its use. If it wasn't working then they did truly have a large problem. She was not sure what would be the best course of action for handling the disease. She tried to think on what she could do for her two comrades. Seeker Allison clearly needed something done. Her body was close to failure, but they were Souls, and they were more than just the body. She sat up, there was something she could do, but it required the cooperation of the Humans. She sighed, this would not be easy.

* * *

####

* * *

"So how are we doing with your cure, Simon?" asked Marc. He was trying to keep an eye on Bri, he didn't trust her any more than she trusted him, but was also trying to talk with Simon.

Simon gave him an exasperated look and turned back to his work which seemed to be a concoction of bottles, jars, and tubing that lay out like a mad scientist's laboratory. "Look, I said this was a long shot, and I meant it. I don't know what we are dealing with, so how well this works is completely unknowable."

"We know it beats Soul drugs, so what can do that?" asked Kate.

Simon jerked his thumb over at the Seekers, "Ask them, no idea."

Marc said, "Alright, this is all a long shot, but this is all we have. How long?" trying to get Simon focused back on his work.

Simon examined his work and considered, "Hmm, maybe twenty more minutes and then we should have enough to try."

"OK, I'm out of your hair", said Marc. He went and sat down next to Sister Mary-Margret. The elderly woman still slept, he took her hand and held it. It was still too hot. The dose of COOL they had given had only lasted a few minutes before her fever returned. He considered his options.

By now Seeker Bri and her little band would be known to be missing to the rest of the Seekers. And they would come in force. Marc knew enough that trying to use Bri and her fellow Seekers as hostages wasn't a good idea. If the Souls thought they would be used as a hostage they would simply suicide themselves, robbing their captors of a living shield. He had seen it before. _'Likely'_ , thought Marc, _'the only reason they hadn't all killed themselves is that they figured that rescue was not long off.'_ But this sickness added a new wrinkle, if it was as infectious as Simon thought, it might give them a way of keeping the rest of the Seekers away. Of course if the disease was as bad as Simon thought, they would all be dead soon enough.

Brought out of his thoughts by Sister Mary-Margret's hand twitching in his. He looked up and saw her eyes flutter open. She looked around slowly and she took in Marc and smiled faintly. "Marc, I'm so glad you are OK."

"Hey, no worries about me, let me worry about you."

"Oh this," she gestured to herself, "is Simon over reacting again. I'll be fine."

"Sister," said Marc firmly, "You need to rest, this is bad." He gestured at little Alexis a few beds down where her mother was tending to her. "Simon doesn't know what this illness is and its spreading."

"And the Soul's medicine? I seem to remember that young Matthew instructing us on all its wonderful uses," asked Mary-Margret.

"Doesn't seem to be able to beat this one," replied Marc.

Sister Mary-Margret reflected on this and the nodded, "Oh well", she said simply. She looked about and remarked, "I see we have guests, I think one wants to talk to you."

Marc looked up to see that Scott had brought Seeker Bri over to them. Bri looked cautiously at Marc and the other humans. She looked like she wanted to talk him, but was uncertain on how to try with the other humans around. Marc didn't feel much like giving her a private conversation, perhaps for no other reason than he knew they would quickly end up screaming at each other. He gestured to a nearby chair and she sat down. The chair was small and she sat with some difficultly with her hands still tied behind her back.

"Marc," said Mary-Margret, "for heaven's sake, untie for the poor girl."

Marc looked at the nun as though she had grown and extra head, "She's a Seeker Sister, untie her and she'll try to escape or harm one of us."

Mary-Margret looked Bright Moon up and down slowly and addressed her, "So you are the young lady causing us so many problems." For her part the Seeker didn't seem to know what to make of the nun. She stared in confusion at the old woman. Sister Mary-Margret grinned at her and spoke to Marc, "She a guest here and we treat guests better than this, Marc."

Marc started to protest, but the nun gave him a sharp look and said, "She's terrified if you hadn't noticed and I believe Scott with his gun is a sufficient deterrent if she has ideas of running around. Untie her. Now."

Chastised, Marc got up and began to undo Bright Moon's restraints. She looked at him in astonishment and asked, "Who is this woman?, How can she order you around so?

"You try arguing with a nun," he growled, "you would have better luck trying to empty Lake Michigan with a spoon."

This gained a soft snort from the Sister. Amusement on her gentle old face, "What is your name?" she asked the Seeker.

"I am called Bright Moon on Fallen Snow," she answered as she pulled her now free hands from behind her and rubbed them to regain some feeling in them.

"My word that is a mouthful, but I admit I do like your Souls' names. Seem so elegant compared to some of ours."

"I call her Bri," interjected Marc. This caused Bright Moon to frown at him.

"Ah Bri, short for _Briana_ ", said Mary-Margret, "it means Nobel Woman. Are you a Nobel Woman?"

Again Bright Moon seemed not to know what to say to the nun. She opened her mouth and then closed it. After a moment she said, "I don't know what that means."

"That's alright," said Mary-Margret, "the important thing is that you have relaxed a bit. I believe you came over here to ask something of us. What do you need?"

Now both Marc and Bright Moon looked at the nun in silent amazement. Even though the conversation with the elderly human was one of the oddest Bright Moon had ever had, she did feel somehow more at ease. She nodded in agreement and spoke to Marc, "I need the Cryotank I brought with us. You took it from us when you captured us in the tunnels."

Marc frowned with deep suspicion, "Why?"

"To retrieve Seeker Allison's Soul, her body will not last much longer. When it expires, there will be a short window of time to remove the Soul. I will store her in the Cryotank," explained Bright Moon.

Marc watched her closely. She seemed slightly evasive when answering the question. Souls didn't lie, at least not well. Seekers did lie, at least some of them did. He wondered what she was holding back on. He thought about it, "It's already occupied, and you are NOT putting it into one of us."

"A Cryotank can carry two of us in an emergency. It is not a long term solution, but when the other Seekers come we can transport her to her own Cryotank", answered Bright Moon.

Marc shook his head in frustration. Of course more Seekers would be coming, if not on their way now. He glowered in irritation at himself; he had delayed their own evacuation in trying to figure out this disease affecting both Humans and Souls. He had wasted time with Bri in some vain hope she could be reasoned with. It was pointless, they needed to get moving.

"No," he said, "We are done here."

"Marc," said Mary-Margret, "what is the harm in letting her try to save her friend."

Marc nearly exploded from his seat, "Harm! What harm!? I'll tell you. It, " he pointed down at Bright Moon who flinched away from him, "and its pals downstairs will soon have bunch of their shiny eyed friends down here. And if we are not gone, they will crush us."

Several other people looked up from Marc's outburst, he could tell from the looks on their faces they felt exactly the same way he did. But when he looked back at Mary-Margret she was scowling at him in disappointment. "Marc, I didn't say we needed to stay here, we do need to go, but that is not reason not to help save the Soul."

"Why should I?" came Marc's reply through clenched teeth.

"Mercy," replied Sister Mary-Margret.

Marc was incredulous, "You have got to be kidding me. Mercy…you want me to show them mercy? I've been merciful to the Seekers before, didn't help one damn bit."

Now Bright Moon stood up, she looked at Marc with a distasteful glare, "When have you ever been compassionate to us?" She gestured to the other humans, "You are all dangerous wild humans and you would murder us if you had the chance." Kate, Simon, and Mike looked at her with very angry expressions and Scott took the safety off on his rifle.

Marc marched up to her and stuck a finger in her face with deadly anger, "Really? Not three days ago I had you and your team helpless in a net. The smart move would be to kill you right then and there, but I didn't. I showed you mercy, and look what that got us."

Bright Moon was about to answer when Mary-Margret shouted, "BE SILENT!" Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and looked at the frail nun. It seemed impossible for the little woman to have made such a loud noise. She was breathing hard and took a few moments before she spoke again.

"Marc," she said," and you Bright Moon, come over here." Both paused for a second and then came over to the nun. Mary-Margret looked very tired, but pushed herself up on the bed and she spoke softly to them.

"Now Marc, you have done many things in regards to the Seekers. You have fought them, run from them, hid from them, and played your tricks on them. But you have NOT shown them mercy. Mercy is not about expecting something in return. Mercy is not done as a reward, or for the strong to grant to the weak. Mercy is done when you have no reason to, when every instinct tells you not to, that is mercy."

Marc was silent a moment and spoke softly, "Show mercy to those not capable of returning it?"

Sister Mary-Margret looked at Bright Moon on Fallen Snow who was staring wide-eyed at the nun. "I don't know if the aliens who call themselves Souls know mercy, or how to show mercy to anyone who isn't another Soul. But if not, all the more reason to demonstrate it to them."

Now the Sister turned to Bright Moon, she took a moment to gather herself, "Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow, I will not argue with you on what the Souls have done to the human race. That is beyond me, it is too large. I am content to let the Almighty make judgment. There are plenty of humans who would disagree with me, but it is my faith. What I can tell you is we have lived here for many years, nearly since the time your people took control of the city. In that time, no one here has killed a Soul. We hid from you, we stole from you, but we did not kill you. So do not recklessly call us murders."

Bright Moon looked at Sister Mary-Margret at first in disbelief and then slowly asked, "You have truly lived here, all this time, without conflict with us?"

"We have tried to," came Mary-Margret's weak response. Now the nun looked truly spent and collapsed back into her bed. Marc was by her side nearly instantly. She gathered what little strength she had and whispered, "Show mercy, Marc." Simon came up behind him and produced a canister of SLEEP. He gave her a small dose and Sister Mary-Margret slipped into a deep sleep.

Marc stood back up and looked about him. Simon, Kate, Mike, Sarah, even little Alexis looked at him. He saw Bright Moon had moved back to the other two Seekers, but was also looking at him, her expression unreadable.

Marc took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He looked over to other Humans, his people, and said, "We are getting the hell out of here", he paused, "and someone get Bright Moon her damn Cryotank."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A cryotank being able to support two Souls is just speculation on my part. Nothing in the book says it can't work that way.


	8. Debate

"Alright, I assume an overdose of morphine will not be an issue for the paras…Soul?" said Simon as he amended the end of his question. Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow gave a quick nod, "No, the drug will not affect the Soul." Simon was not happy about using his small supply of morphine, but his curiosity about how the Souls attached themselves to their human hosts was overriding his irritation.

For her part Bright Moon was nervous about the procedure. She was dangerously close to revealing information about how to remove a Soul from a host body. The Human Healer, Simon, was preparing a dose of a drug that would stop the heart of Seeker Allison, to end her suffering. She was letting the humans believe that the host's death was a requirement to extract the Soul. It wasn't, she could remove the Soul right now, but in doing so the humans would learn too much. All souls knew this, and all Souls would rather die than give up this information.

But Bright Moon had little choice; she could not sit back and do nothing for the Soul in the body of the dying woman before her. The sickness had ravaged her body, resisted their medicine, and left her near death. Simon said they would only need a little of the drug to move things along as he put. It would be painless, he explained. She would have preferred to do the removal by herself, but Marc Walters had insisted that Simon assist. She only hoped the human would not learn too much.

"Okay," said Simon as he injected the drug into the seeker on the table before them, "this shouldn't take much more than a few minutes at most. How long do we have to wait before we can extract the Soul?"

"When activity in the host's brain comes to an end, we automatically detach", said Bright Moon. Not exactly a lie, when the host body did expire, a Soul would remove its hundreds of connections from its host. She hoped Simon would not see through her half-lie.

However Simon was not paying attention to her, he was examining the body. "Pulse is almost non-existent, not long now", muttered Simon. He folded the body's hands on to her stomach and pulled a few stray hairs out of face. "You called her Allison, was that her name?" asked Simon.

Bright Moon looked at Simon in confusion, "Yes, she called herself Allison."

"I mean the Human, the one doing the actual dying here, what was her name?" snapped Simon.

"I..I don't know," stammered Bright Moon, she had not even considered this. Simon gave her a very irritated look and she looked away. Simon straightened and bowed his head for a moment. She saw that several other humans in the make shift hospital do the same. Bright Moon felt a sting of shame and wished she was anywhere else.

"I am sorry, whoever you are, you didn't deserve this," said Simon quietly, even softer he added, "no one deserves this." He checked her vitals again and sighed, "She's gone."

They began the procedure, it was actually very easy. Bright Moon cut along the existing insertion scar while Simon pulled the hair aside and held the head in place. After the cut was made, she reached into , feeling for the Soul with her fingers. "Come little one," she said, "It is time to go."

Something was wrong. She should have felt the edge of the Soul's antenna, but she felt only the bone of the body's spine. She looked up at Simon who was watching her closely.

"Problem?" he asked.

"I am not certain, I will make the cut larger," she responded. She picked up the scalpel and widened the cut. Simon assisted by bending the body's head forward so she could get a better look inside. As she did, she saw the Soul, and nearly screamed.

"No…No…No!" she cried.

"What is it?" said Simon in alarm. He turned the body so he could see and his eyes widened. He saw the Soul, the small worm like alien, which wrapped itself around the spinal column and had hundreds of antennas connecting into the brain, was dead. The normal silver of its body was a sickly green color and its many antennas lay limp in the body.

Bright Moon, tears coming down her face, slowly pulled the Soul's body from its resting place in the human host. She cradled the small body in her hand.

Simon looked at her in confusion, "Were we too late?"

It took the Seeker a minute to calm down. She looked back at Simon, her silver rimmed eyes filled with grief. "No, we were not, and even if we were the body should not be so…wrong."

Simon went about examining the dead body of the woman. "Well I can't be sure," he said, "But if I would make a guess, this disease was able to jump from the human host to the parasite's body and kill it as well."

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow cradled the dead Soul in her arms and looked at Simon in quiet horror and said in a weak voice, "How can this be?"

* * *

####

* * *

Eric looked over his workstations at his desk and tried for the tenth time to figure out what he needed to take with him. He had been told only to take only what he could carry with him. For Eric, this was impossibility. Everything here severed a purpose, even if it did look like a chaotic mess of computer equipment, wires, and monitors.

He sighed and sat down in his beat up old chair. His improvised office took up a large amount of his living quarters and more often than not he slept in this chair. He looked over his equipment again. The computers here didn't just contain information, they contained… _humanity._ Digital copies of books, artwork, music, and movies, the foot print of humanity or at least what Eric had been able to save. When the Souls had taken over, they had discarded so much of the humans 'civilization. Anything they deemed violent, aggressive, or dangerous had been thrown away.

Eric looked over one of his indexes at what the Souls had rejected – the 1812 Overture for example. Why? Because of the canons used at the end of the song, that was considered too violent so the Souls had systematically removed all copies of the song. The MP3 copy that Eric had stored in his computers might be the last one on Earth. He shook his head; there was something so _evil_ about the way they callously got rid of the human culture they didn't like.

_'Maybe I should stay behind'_ , he thought, _'fight the Seekers when they come. Defend what's left our history.'_ He laughed at himself. He was no fighter like Marc or Dell. His talents were elsewhere, the circuit and lines of code were his weapons.

One of his many console windows flashed a message to him. He focused on screen and brought up a window. "Oh, damn, jackpot", he said smiling to himself as he looked over his handy work. Marc was always warning Eric to play it safe when trying to hack the Souls many networks. He was always concerned about being found out, that his activities would lead the Souls to them. Eric tried not to be too insulted, he was better than anything the Souls could come up with.

But with the Seekers discovery in the tunnel, worrying about being found out in a hack attempt was pointless. So Eric had gone after the biggest prize– Chicago's traffic camera system. And with this latest message, he saw that he was in. A network of cameras that covered the entire city was now at his disposal. Hopefully it would give them a small advantage when their little family went on the run.

Eric pulled up a window at random, a live camera feed from one of the many in the city. He frowned…that was odd… _'why so many ambulances?'_ he wondered. He pulled up more windows, expanding his view of the city and his understanding of what was happening.

"Holy hell", he whispered.

* * *

####

* * *

"What do you have left, Simon?" asked Marc as he reentered the hospital. He had been busy with last minute packing of his own. Now, finally, they were ready to go. But where should they run to, where would there be a safe haven for their family? Marc was not certain.

"Nearly ready, I still don't like moving Mary-Margret, but I think I've made a half descent one-man stretcher for her", replied Simon as he finished packing his own bag. "All I have left is our unwelcome guests."

Marc looked over to where their two 'guests' were sitting. Neither of the two Seekers had moved since the death of their comrade. Marc guessed they were mourning. "So what do you think?" asked Marc.

Simon gave a small shrug, "I don't know. It's just a guess that the same illness that is affecting the Human is causing the illness in a Soul. I only have one example, so it's all just theory."

"What about removing a Soul from a human host, you think they were being straight with us that it can only be done at death?"

"I think there is more to it than they are letting on. But again it's all guess work at this point."

Marc sighed, shaking his head, "Yeah I figure. I once asked Auntie about it and she got real nervous and tried to lie about it. The only time she ever did that with me."

Simon looked thoughtful, "Most likely it is a closely guarded secret if there is a way to remove them."

"Yeah, but let's live to another day to figure it out", said Marc. He left Simon to finish his work and walked over to the two Seekers. As he approached Bright Moon looked up at him with a guarded expression. She was still carefully holding the dead Soul in her hands.

"Do you need a…", Marc broke off, not certain what to say. He tried to take a moment and think of the Seekers as if they were like Auntie… Autumn Gusting Wind was a Soul he actually cared about. It wasn't particularly easy. "We are leaving soon. I need to secure the both of you in our holding area. Do you need some type of container for your friend?"

"Marc", began Bright Moon, "are you planning on trying to escape?"

"Look, all things considered I have been more than a little forgiving with you. I'm sorry about the other Seeker. But right now we've got a small window of escape and we are taking it. So don't start badgering me about surrendering", said Marc as calmly as he could.

Bright Moon considered him for a moment. "Marc", she said softly and perhaps for the first time with a hint of kindness in her voice, "I do thank you for letting me try to save Seeker Allison. But don't you see, you can't run. If you do, you will spread this disease further. If you truly do not mean us harm, then you must stay and let us find a cure for this."

"So you would give us some free health care and then we would be free to go?" said Marc with a small sad smile.

"I don't know about that", she responded slowly. She looked around the Human's hospital, "The situation is more complicated than we would have guessed."

Marc rolled his eyes, "You know better…If we stay, it will be the end of us. I don't know if this illness is fatal to us or not. But I know an army of Seekers will be."

She looked to argue but he said firmly, "Don't place this on me. You Souls are the ones that have run a no compromise campaign on humanity. Either be taken over or be taken out. No exceptions. Don't be angry with me when my only real option is to run."

They both lapsed into silence until Marc got up and rummaged around and found an old but clean shoebox for the dead Soul. He was about to give it to Bright Moon when Eric ran into the room. He was carrying a laptop with him that was trailing several cords. He took sight of Marc and rushed over to him. "Marc", he practically yelled, "you need to see this!"

Eric came up short when he saw Bright Moon and Calm Waters. Both Seekers looked at the Human with a bit of alarm. "Umm, are we letting them out now?" he asked Marc referring to the Seekers, "Cause that seems like a bad idea."

Marc held up his hands, "Its fine. Now what are you going on about?"

Eric gave both Seekers a reproachful look but then opened the laptop and showed it to Marc. Marc took the laptop and looked at the images on the screen, a scowl forming on his face. "You see the crowds?" said Eric.

"Where, exactly, am I looking?" asked Marc.

"That would be Mercy Hospital on the South Side", said Eric as he worked controls over Marc's shoulder, "and this would be the Urgent Care Center at Central Station, and this is Northwestern Memorial." Each screen that Eric showed Marc showed a hospital surrounded by hundreds of people, a huge crowd at the entrance to the emergency rooms that snaked out to the parking lots, and all of them Souls. From what Marc could tell, many of them were sick.

Bright Moon came up and tried to look at the laptop, but Eric blocked the way so the Seeker couldn't see what was on the screen. The Seeker bobbed and weaved trying to get around Eric, while Eric spread his arms wide and defiantly tried to keep her away. Marc watched all this with faint amusement. "Eric, let her pass. She needs to see what is happening."

Eric gaped at him but eventually did let her pass. She examined the video on the screen of the laptop. Her expression went from confusion to a slowly building horror. "The disease has already spread", she said in a near whisper.

"Looks like," said Marc.

"This is from the city's traffic cameras", said Bright Moon as she continued to look at the video. She gave Eric and Marc an odd look that bordered between curiosity and a glare, "How do you have access to this?"

"We've got more skills and resources than you guessed, remember?" responded Marc, to Eric he asked, "Is this live?"

"Yeah these are all live feeds", answered Eric. He looked at Bright Moon for a moment and then shrugged. "Well since we are sharing", he said addressing the Seeker, "I think I know why your buddies haven't shown up. They are a little busy." Eric took the laptop from her and made a few adjustments, he turned it back letting both Marc and Bright Moon see the screen.

"See this is on I-94 coming in from the south and here is an image from out by O'Hare, they have closed it off." Marc and Bright Moon looked at the images, each one showing dozen of Seekers sitting up road blocks and turning vehicles away, stopping them from entering the city.

"They are closing off the city." said both Marc and Bright Moon together.

* * *

####

* * *

"Healer Matthew," said Seeker Skyward Into the Night, "I realize you are very busy, thank you for taking time for me. What can you tell me about this disease?"

The Healer took a slow breath, attempting to calm himself. He did not really have time to answer to the Seeker's questions, but the man had been very persistent. To the point of annoyance, _'Seekers could sometimes be so abrasive'_ , thought Matthew.

"Unfortunately I cannot tell you much, and what I can tell you is not comforting. The disease is a bacterial infection that spreads by air or water. Once infected the bacteria spread rapidly in the host body."

"And this bacteria resists our medicines?" stated Skyward.

"Yes", said Matthew, "from what we've been able to learn, the bacteria has developed an ability to mask itself from our treatments. Our medication does not 'see' the disease and so it can't treat it."

"Can we not modify our drugs to correctly see it and destroy it?" asked the Seeker sharply.

"Yes, we are attempting to do this", Matthew paused trying to think of a way to bring this conversation to a close. He had much more important responsibilities than talking to Seeker Skyward. "Please, I do need to speak with my other Healers, as you can imagine our ability to deal with so many ill has stretched us to our limits."

Skyward Into Night gave Matthew a sour look, "I understand your responsibilities, but you need to understand mine. I need to know how to contain this outbreak and I need to report to the Quorum on our status."

Healer Matthew frowned, "I have already spoken with Healer Crystal Spires and she will be making her report to the Quorum."

Skyward's body was shorter than Matthew's but as he stepped closer to Matthew, he seemed to be far larger and much more intimidating. "I know that. Relevant medical knowledge is what Crystal Spires will report on. That is her duty. My duty is the protection of all Souls in this city. And to do this I need to have a full understanding of what we are facing!"

Matthew fell back from the Seeker. He had never been spoken to like this by his own kind. His mouth hung open in astonishment. Skyward, sensing his words had been more forceful than he meant them to be, said more civilly, "You are correct, Healer Matthew, you are consumed with many problems. I will look for my answers from someone not as busy." With that the small man turned and walked away.

Matthew looked after the Seeker as he moved down the hallway and could only shake his head.

* * *

####

* * *

"Okay, sweetie, this won't hurt a bit," said Simon as he prepared to give Alexis the shot. For her part the little girl turned into her mother's arms, not wanting to see the needle. She gave a quick cry as Simon gave her the shot, but Sarah was quickly comforting her as she clung to her mother.

"How much will little Alexis need?" asked Kate.

Simon paused to consider, "Well, this isn't even as strong as penicillin. I'll need to administer a dose about every four hours or so. I gave a larger dose to Mary-Margret, it's still a little early to tell, but it does seem to be helping."

"How much of that stuff do you have?" asked Marc, "How much more can you make?"

Simon looked around the hospital, it was getting crowded. During the time Simon was finishing a batch of medicine more people with the illness had been brought in. Two Humans and one of the captured Seekers had started showing signs of the illness. All three of them now were in the hospital. The two humans were resting easily enough, but Bright Moon had to stay with the ill Seeker, repeatedly telling him to be calm and reassure him the Humans were not planning on dissecting him.

"Well, first I was making the drug, then we were packing to leave, then I was treating Seekers, then I was back to packing again," replied Simon cantankerously.

"If," said Simon looking directly at Marc, "someone could make up his mind, I might be able to accomplish something around here."

"Simon, you were in the Army, you know how it is. Shifting priorities, changing conditions," answered Marc somewhat apologetically.

Simon grunted, "I was in the Army and I know exactly what this is – FUBAR. But the answer to both questions is the same – not much."

"Let me guess," said Marc, "You would need supplies from top side to make more?"

"Not just supplies," replied Simon as he gestured to his desk that housed his complicated setup for producing his medicine, "to make this stuff in any meaningful quantity I'm going to need some decent tools and equipment."

"So I'm guessing a hospital, a real one I mean?" asked Marc.

"It would be best," nodded Simon, "but at the very least a medical lab that is fully supplied. Which right now are going to be crammed full of sick Souls."

Marc folded his arms in thought while Kate looked over the equipment. It looked like something found in a mad scientists laboratory. "What exactly is this medicine?" questioned Kate.

"Silver Nitrate in a suspending solution," responded Simon, "I'm speeding it up a bit by directly injecting it. Use to be people would take it orally."

Kate looked puzzled at the doctor, "Silver Nitrate? Sounds like fertilizer or something."

"Nope," said Simon, "Long before modern day antibiotics, silver compounds were used to treat medical conditions. Granted, it didn't work in many situations. But silver nitrate is known to be antiseptic and kills bacteria." He looked at his patients and sighed, "Hopefully it works for us here."

Voices coming from the tunnel leading into the hospital drew Marc, Kate, and Simon's attention. Dell and several others came into view. Dell took one look at the corner of the hospital where the Seekers were staying and marched over to Marc.

"That," said Dell pointing at the Seekers "Is a very bad idea."

"It's Okay, they are behaving. Other than Bri, the other two are too sick to be a threat", replied Marc.

Dell shook his head in disgust. "Not about them being a threat, the fact we are treating them at all is."

Marc started to reply, but Simon interrupted him. "I'll admit I wasn't too keen on treating them, but I'm not one to let someone just sit there and suffer. Even", he gave the Seekers a reproachful look, "a bunch of worms."

Simon continued, "But more importantly, there is something to learn from them. This disease moves faster through them than us. That blond haired Seeker they just brought in is markedly worse than the rest of us with the exception of Sister Mary-Margret. If I can learn why, might help in beating this thing."

Dell didn't look entirely convinced but seemed resigned to the situation, "Fine enough if they are lab rats."

Looking to change the topic, Marc inquired about Dell's expedition to the city above. "So what does it look like up there? I've seen the traffic cam stuff, but that isn't getting the full picture."

Dell nodded, "It's getting towards full tilt chaos up there. The hospitals are jammed packed and with the major roads shut down the streets are clogged with traffic. If it were a human city I guess I would expect looting and vandalism to be running wild, but they are still acting all nice and peaceful."

"I'm not sure it has sunk in to them just how bad it is," said Marc, "They may never have had to deal with something like this before."

"Fine by me," rumbled Dell, "These assholes need to be taken down a peg or two."

Marc couldn't argue with him, but still something nagged at him. The whole city, very likely, was infected. It appeared that even the Soul Healers were unable to stop the illness. _'If it continued, would every Soul end up like the dead Seeker?'_ considered Marc. Their own people were sick as well, they could easily end up like the Souls, all dead. Simon's treatment needed supplies that would be difficult to get at the best of time, nearly impossible now. Yet he felt there was a solution, but he just wasn't seeing it. Marc slumped down into a chair, "I don't know what to do."

Dell sat down beside him. "I have a thought on that"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, so we all are infected, right? And the Seekers have locked down the city to try and prevent it from spreading. So yeah it's locked down, but those Seekers are spread pretty thin. We could make it out past them, get out of the city," explained Dell.

"Where would we go?" asked Marc.

"Doesn't matter, so long as we keep breathing and keep spreading it," said Dell.

Marc looked in surprise at his friend, shocked he would suggest something like this. He frowned deeply, "Before the Seekers closed off the city I figured we would run, but I had no idea where we would go. But I never planned to deliberately go around infecting anyone with this."

Dell sighed, "Marc, I'm not like you. I'm not an orphan from the streets. I had family and a home, the Souls took that away from me."

Marc answered angrily, "I've lost people too, people I cared about. So your solution is that the Souls took from you, so you'll infect them as payback? It is one thing to defend yourself, whole other story to go all weapon of mass destruction.

Dell got up off his seat, glowering at Marc, "I know…I know, when I first came here you explained it – We didn't fight the Souls, we just survive them. They had won and we had lost. It was time to accept that and find a new way of living."

"I did and I still mean it," said Marc evenly.

"Even after today, after everything you've seen them do, you still don't want to fight them?" responded Dell hotly.

Marc got up, facing Dell, his own anger seething, "I have and always will defend us, fight for us, but I will not go on some lost cause to try to destroy the Souls. There are literally billions of them and only a handful of us. The Souls will never let us run now. All your plan amounts to is suicide."

Marc and Dell's argument was now the focus of all in the room. Marc could see Bright Moon watching them with interest. Kate, Simon, and the others also watched them closely, waiting to see who would win the argument.

"So what then, we just hide and die down here?" rumbled Dell.

"No," said Marc with a sudden realization. "We are going to get those supplies that Simon needs."

Dell looked at him in surprise, "How?"

* * *

####

* * *

Healer Matthew entered his office, closed the door, and walked to his desk. He let out a low moan as he sat down heavily in his chair. The latest test with the revised medicine was a failure. The sickness was seemingly unstoppable. He looked out the window of the office and saw outside the hospital that large tents were being raised, providing make-shift emergency centers for the ever increasing number of sick.

The number of ill was increasing alarmingly and with dismay so were the number of deaths. Matthew did not want to even begin to think about it. Coupled with his troublesome meeting with Seeker Skyward Into the Night he was feeling completely drained. He looked over to his phone, he should call his partner – Sings From the Shadows – she would be worried about him.

"Matthew", said a low voice.

He sat bolt upright and looked around. From the shadows a man appeared. He moved slowly and sat down across from him. Matthew had been so distracted when he came in that he had not even seen him.

"Hi, sorry, didn't mean to scare you", said the man apologetically.

It took Matthew a moment to recognize the man. He did know him, but it had been several months since they had last met. More importantly this man was a Human, not a Soul.

"Mr. Adelman?" he said in surprise.

"Hey, just call me Scott", said the Human, "we're friends, right?"

"Scott, how did you get in here?" asked Matthew but then smiled slightly, "Never mind, I've grown use to you and friends' ability to seeming appear out of nowhere."

Scott smiled back and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, we've all got our talents. Now I know you are really busy."

Matthew interrupted with sadness in his voice, "I am beyond busy, if you have come for treatment to deal with this illness..."

Scott held his hands up, "No, No, we know, the medicine isn't working. But that's why I'm here. Marc wants to setup a meeting."

Matthew gave Scott a pained look, "Why, what will this accomplish?"

Scott said with a small smile, "We think we might be able to help."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Silver Nitrate as a treatment for infections is a real thing and was used before modern antibiotics were developed. I wanted to make something that would be plausible for my characters to come up with as a possible cure.


	9. Bargaining

"Is this blindfold really necessary?" asked Bright Moon on Fallen Snow as they moved down the tunnel. She was once again blindfolded. Marc and Scott had a firm grip on her arms as Kate followed behind them carrying her rifle. At least this time her hands and feet were not bound so she was able to move with greater ease than before.

"Yes," said Kate.

"Yes," said Scott.

"Think of it this way, Bri," said Marc as they trudged along, "Being able to move around in these tunnels in the complete dark is sort of a rite-of-passage for our little band of Humans. You're on your way to getting honorary membership."

"Great, let's just adopt the Seeker that has been systematically hunting us for months," said Kate sarcastically.

"Yeah Marc," said Scott, "last thing we need is getting the Seekers better at moving around down here. More fun to watch them fumble around in the dark."

Bright Moon could only shake her head, "You people are very strange, even for Humans."

Kate, Scott, and Marc paused to consider this, "Thanks," they said in unison.

They continued on in silence. Bright Moon thought back to before they had left the humans' base. Two more of the Seekers in her company had started showing signs of the illness. At that point Marc had determined that it was time to talk with the Souls above, about working out some sort of trade to make more of their Healer's medicine. With few other options she had agreed to go with Marc.

For a few minutes more they continued before they came to a stop. Her blindfold was removed and she looked around. There was little light, but from the smell she could tell they were in part of the sewers that ran under the city. She wrinkled her nose at the smell, "How do you stand living in these tunnels?"

"Small price to pay to get to continue living," said Kate. She was watching Bright Moon with an angry look on her face. "You think we like living like rats? You people drove us down here."

Bright Moon said nothing and turned away. Mentally she chastised herself. She should stop trying to interact with these Humans; there was little she could say that would not antagonize them. But every time she had tried this she was pulled back into talking with them. It was strange how they could be friendly one moment and openly hostile the next.

"Alright, Bri, we're going up this ladder," said Marc as he indicated a set of rungs leading upward with his flashlight.

"Marc, are you sure about this?" asked Kate. She stood in front of the ladder, preventing them from going further.

"Yeah, I would feel better if I went with you," added Scott.

"Look, this is my crazy idea. I'll not ask anyone else to risk themselves over it," replied Marc.

Kate rolled her eyes, "Yeah, that's so noble of you. But is this the smart move?"

Marc paused in consideration and then said, "It isn't the smart move. We are out of smart moves. We are down to desperate moves. If this doesn't work, then it is just me in the soup. I'll deal as best I can."

"I already bailed your ass out once tonight Walters, not going to do it again", said Kate with a small smile.

"Wouldn't ask you to Gonzales", replied Marc as he started up the ladder. He paused for a second, "But if I come back and I'm not me…"

Kate hefted her rifle and said with deadly seriousness, "Then I'll make it quick."

* * *

####

* * *

"Excuse me, but I am looking for Healer Matthew", said the young woman looking down at the receptionist. The receptionist's body was a heavy set, middle aged woman who looked as though she had just run a marathon. She was tried to bring a smile to her lips, but was failing. She was simply exhausted. The lobby of the hospital was swarmed with people and even as they were all Souls, the sheer number and the increasing desperation was creating a truly chaotic atmosphere.

"Healer Crystal Spires, there you are", said a voice in the middle of the crowds. Crystal Spires looked up and saw her fellow healer. Mathew looked more than a little ragged, the young blond haired body of the healer looked as though it had aged ten years in the last few hours. Crystal Spires went over to him and took him by his arm. For a moment the larger man sagged against the smaller woman, his own exhaustion clear. She padded him affectionately on the back, "I know", she whispered, "This is a most difficult time. I have come as you requested, but I have little time. I am meeting with the Quorum shortly."

"I know," said Matthew, "I know you have much to do, and I hope this is not a waste of your time."

"What is it? Your message said that you might have help in formulating a cure. This is most excellent news, but why must you meet with me in person?" asked Crystal Spires.

"Can we go somewhere private," answered Matthew, "the issue is rather complex."

She nodded in agreement and Matthew led her to a small conference room. Away from the crowds and noise of the lobby, the small room was quiet and peaceful, a small oasis from the storm that went on outside the door. Matthew sunk down in a chair and covered his face with his hands. He took several long, deep breaths, steadying himself.

Crystal Spires sat down beside him, concern flooding her face. "Matthew, I know you are under tremendous pressure right now…"

"No," he said softly, "It is not that." He looked up at her slowly. "I must make a confession."

Crystal Spires tilted her head and said with slight confusion, "Confession, what do you mean?"

"I have…been assisting certain individuals for a while now. Giving them medical supplies, helping with their injuries, and providing other medical care," said Matthew slowly.

Crystal Spires's confusion only deepened, "As your calling dictates, I do not understand what you are confessing to."

"The individuals I speak of are not Souls," said Matthew cautiously.

"Not Souls? But who else…" Crystal Spires trailed off. Her eyes widened and her mouth hung open for a moment in understanding. "Matthew you don't mean…"

"Humans," he said in confirmation.

For a few moments Crystal Spires simply looked at Matthew. She closed her eyes and then reopened them. Her previous concern for him was gone and she asked coolly, "Why?"

"Perhaps you answered the question already, my calling dictates it," said Matthew in a near whisper.

"You are admitting to helping the Human Insurgency, and your explanation is your calling requires it?"

Matthew sighed, "Does it matter if they are Soul or Human? Do we not treat the body for all afflictions? Why is it an issue if the body belongs to a Soul or to a Human?"

Crystal Spires shook her head vigorously, "But you are aiding a group that is bent on our destruction. Even if you treated them in accordance to your calling, you have a responsibility to inform the Seekers. It is for the greater good."

"They are not what the Seekers claim," insisted Matthew, his voice becoming more than a whisper. "I never would have helped them if I believed they intended us harm."

Crystal Spires pursed her lips, "Even if what you say is true, what does all this have to do with curing the illness. What do the humans have to do with this?"

Matthew leaned back in his chair and gathered himself. After admitting his secret he seemed somehow unburdened and he leaned forward with a small amount of energy in his voice. "Healer, the Humans have been infected as well; they too are suffering from the sickness. They too found that the medicine I supplied them with was not able to cure. So they began trying their own medicine, they have found success where we have not."

"But their medicine is primitive in comparison to our own, how can theirs cure while ours does not?"

"I don't know, but then this illness should not be possible, but it is. It is possible that it has weakness to medical procedures other than our own."

"And you believe the Humans have found this cure?" asked Crystal Spires slowly. The disbelief was clear on her face.

"I trust the human that brought me this information. He requested that we meet with them and see if we can find a solution to our mutual problem," answered Matthew.

"This could be a trick, or some type of trap," said Crystal Spires evenly. "How can you be so sure?"

Matthew looked down at his hands for a few seconds, lost in deep thought. He looked back up and meet Crystal Spires gaze. "I know you have no reason to trust them. You only know to fear them. But I'm asking you to trust me."

"I don't know," said Crystal Spires somewhat doubtfully, "we should contact the Seekers before we meet with them."

Matthew frowned slightly and said, "Oddly enough, they said a Seeker would be present at the meeting."

* * *

####

* * *

"What?" said Marc, as he looked over to where Bright Moon was watching him. Since his argument with Dell down in their sanctuary he had caught her several times staring at him with an odd expression on her face. He couldn't tell if the look was irritation or curiosity. Bright Moon was one of the few Souls he had meet that didn't always go around with that dopey smile on their face something common to their race. He had just assumed this was because she was a Seeker. Seekers often were much more intense than other Souls, but maybe there was more to it.

She shook her head as if to clear an unpleasant thought from her head and answered, "Nothing"

He got up and began to pace back and forth. The two of them were waiting in the old basement wing of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. This part of the basement was used as storage and there was little more here than rows of old medical supplies and equipment. Marc looked around and kept his senses sharp. There was any number of ways this could go wrong. Marc didn't know the Healer that Matthew was bringing; only that she was big wig with the Healers in the city. She was also tied to what the Souls called the Quorum. The Quorum, as far as Marc and his people could figure out, was as close to a group of leaders in the area for the Souls. Hopefully she would be open to a deal.

"What are you doing?" asked Bright Moon.

"Pacing, helps me think," replied Marc.

"No, I mean, what are we doing here? I agreed to come when you said you would be surrendering. This is not my headquarters."

"Okay," said Marc, as he turned to her and began counting of on his right hand. "One, I said I was going to negotiate, not surrender. Two, you didn't have a lot of choice in coming. If you said no, we would have just tied you up and brought you anyway. And three, we are in the basement of the Northwestern Memorial Hospital."

"Why are we in a basement?"

Marc grinned at her, "To negotiate, of course."

Bright Moon got up from where she was sitting and came over to him. He tensed for a second as she approached, but she wasn't attacking. She looked him up and down as though she was trying to come sort of assessment on Marc. "I was wrong about you. You are not what I thought you to be, Marc Walters."

"So you don't think I'm a savage brute?" said Marc with a smile.

"It would be so much easier if you were. But I don't know if you are something better or if you are something far worse. Why are you doing this?"

Marc reflected for a moment and then leaned back against a large supply crate. "When I was arguing with Dell it suddenly struck me. I had been completely blocked, trying to figure out what to do next. He was arguing to go out and try to infect as many Souls as possible. Go out in what amounted to a suicide mission."

"How was what he proposed any different from what you planned before you learned we sealed off the city?" questioned Bright Moon.

Marc shook his head, "A big difference, I wouldn't have been trying to infect anyone on purpose. I would have been running to stay alive, Dell would have been running to die. But in the end it isn't about running or not. I just realized that his plan meant there was nothing left for us to lose. And he was right; we have nothing left."

Bright Moon frowned, "What do you mean?"

Marc came over and took Bright Moon's hand in his and placed it on his chest. Her eyes went wide as he spoke, "Right now my heart beats and I'm alive. But so what? You know where our home is, you come and we're dead. If we run, you come after us and we are dead. If the Seekers don't get us, the disease does and we are dead. There are no options that don't result in our deaths." He let go of her hand. She continued to stare at him, her silver rimmed eyes wide.

In almost a whisper she asked, "Do you mean to end yourself?"

Marc almost barked out a laugh, "Kill myself? You just don't get it, do you Bri?"

Her annoyance with him grew, "Then what? Why do you talk in riddles?"

"Beware the man who has nothing to lose…for he has only to gain", said Marc quietly but with a conviction in his voice that made Bright Moon tremble. Marc went on, "We could fight you and go out in a blaze of glory. With the Seekers spread thin and rest of you fighting this disease we could do a hell of a lot of damage before we are done. Or we could pop a few lawn chairs, sit back, and watch this city burn as the infection consumes everyone. Or we could drop our weapons, take the hand of our enemy, and take on this disease together."

"So which will it be, Bright Moon? Am I monster or am I a man of mercy. That's what we are here to find out."

* * *

####

* * *

Healer Crystal Spires calmed herself and stepped off the elevator with Healer Matthew. She looked around. They had exited the elevator into the hospital's basement. The basement was mostly used to store old and unused equipment. Matthew apparently knew where to go as he led her into the rows of equipment.

Crystal Spires felt a bead of sweat form on her neck. She tried to keep her fear in check, but it was difficult. She would be meeting with a real, live, wild human. She was still reeling from revelation that one of her most gifted Healers was secretly helping the Human Insurgents. With no one else around she was becoming increasingly worried.

Matthew sensed her apprehension and said, "Please don't worry about Marc, he can be a bit rambunctious like many humans, but he is a good man."

"He is the one the Seekers have been hunting for. And you say he has a Seeker with him. How is that possible?" inquired Crystal Spires.

Matthew sighed quietly, "I am not sure, but we will find out in a moment, there they are." He pointed at two people talking in the middle of a row of boxed equipment.

One person was a young woman dressed in the typical black uniform of a Seeker. She had blond hair tied back in a pony-tail and was sporting a bruise on the right side of her jaw. She was talking with a young man who had brown spiky hair. He was taller than she was and had a body that was well built, but still thin enough to remain very agile. His clothing was much dirtier than the woman's. Even in basement's old fluorescent lights she could see the woman's reflective silver in her eyes and the man had none in his.

The Human took sight of them and smiled when he saw Matthew. "Hello my friend, wish we were meeting under better circumstances."

Matthew paused while looking at both Crystal Spires and the Seeker. He took a deep breath and let it out, realizing his relationship with the Human would now be impossible to hide any longer. "Yes, I do wish it was a better time. I have done as you asked", he indicated to Crystal Spires, "This is Healer Crystal Spires."

The Human made a small bow to Crystal Spires and smiled, "Marc Walters, pleased to meet you."

Crystal Spires wasn't sure the best thing to do, so she simply nodded at Marc's greeting. She looked over to the Seeker who had been watching both Matthew and herself. The Seeker had listened to Marc's greeting to Matthew and was giving Matthew a confused look. She asked, "And you Seeker, are you also an ally of the Humans?"

The Seeker's eyes widened at the questions and her mouth feel open a little. She began to respond when Marc laughter interrupted her. The laughter was loud and harsh, making both Matthew and Crystal Spires jump. "Oh that is rich! Bri and me allies!"

The Seeker glared at Marc and said, "No, Healer, we are most certainly NOT allies. I am", she paused for a few seconds while considering, "for lack of a better term, his prisoner."

Crystal Spires looked over to Matthew sharply, "Matthew, what is this? You claimed the Humans were not hostile. Yet here is a human, taking a Seeker prisoner."

Matthew was at a loss of words, glancing back and forth between Seeker and Human. However, Marc's laughter died down and he spoke with much more composure, "Sorry about that, kind of caught me off guard with that question. Now as to Seeker Bright Moon's status, yes I suppose she and her group can be considered prisoners. However, part of the reason I brought her was to confirm my information. After that, we can talk about getting them out of our holding cell."

Marc's response caused both Bright Moon and Crystal Spires to react at the same time, but for two different reasons. "You have more than one prisoner? You plan to let us go?" said both Bright Moon and Crystal Spires together in surprise. Marc held up his hands, "Yes, Bri, I'm willing to let you go. Not much point in keeping you guys around, especially if they are all getting sick. Crystal Spires, let's start at the beginning. Bri, fill in any details I miss. When everyone is on the same page, then we can talk about what happens next, alright?"

Crystal Spires relented and nodded to let Marc and Bright Moon go over the events that happened earlier that day as she and Matthew listened. They began together but in a short time Marc had a different version of events in the tunnel compared to Bright Moon's. As they spoke, the Human and the Seeker would go off the topic of previous events and begin to complain about each other, before stopping and getting back on track. At one point they started arguing again and seemed to be completely unaware of the other two Souls watching them.

Crystal Spires looked over to Matthew and whispered as the other two argued, "Is this normal?"

Matthew shook his head, "I've never seen Marc act this way before, and I don't know the Seeker, but I've never seen one behave this way either."

"Excuse me", said Crystal Spires firmly and both Marc and Bright Moon stopped and looked at the healer, "I have come here to listen about a possible cure for the disease effecting thousands in this city. Could it be possible for you to explain the situation without each of you yelling at each other?"

Marc sighed heavily and said, "Your right, I'm sorry. Bright Moon, please explain what happened with your Seekers once they started getting ill. I'll shut up."

Bright Moon looked a little sheepishly at the Healers and began again to explain what happen to the Seekers who became sick. The details mirrored what the Healers had sadly already seen happen many times already tonight. Bright Moon also explained about the humans becoming sick and Simon's attempt at a cure for the disease.

Crystal Spires asked Bright Moon when she had finished, "The humans truly did try to help you with the Soul that died?"

"They did", said Bright Moon slowly, "They were merciful." She gave Marc an odd look.

Bright Moon's answer caused Crystal Spires to frown intensely for an instant but then her normal calm expression returned. She paused to consider and then returned to questioning Marc. "Mr. Walter's it would seem you and your group have found something that can help us, what exactly do you want from us?"

Marc took a deep breath and considered his next words carefully, "Obviously, we need to stop this disease. Right now it looks like Simon's medicine is the best thing we've got. We've got the know-how, but we lack supplies and equipment to make it. We work together to make the medicine."

"May I point out the obvious, that if Souls were to occupy you and your Healer, we would have all the knowledge to create the cure ourselves?" said Crystal Spires.

Marc smiled without humor, "Oh I'm sure you can try. But as I was telling Bright Moon before you showed up, we really have nothing to lose here. You don't want to cooperate, fine. But you will not get our cure by soul insertion. We'll kill ourselves first."

"You would destroy yourselves, just to spite us?" said Crystal Spires in disbelief.

"The question you should be asking – Can I really afford to ignore this offer?" said Marc evenly. He paused for a second and then added, "Also, there is another good reason to let us be."

"What is that?"

"The disease affects us slower than it does you. The Seekers are getting sicker much faster than my people. I'll bet it's the same for the other Souls getting sick. Simon doesn't know why, but whatever the reason, you need us."

Both Bright Moon and Crystal Spires gave Marc a confused look. "Why?" asked Crystal Spires.

"Because you are going to need every able body to help fight this thing, how long before your own healers start getting affected by this bug? Simon knows it travels fast; chances are we all are contaminated. But we've got more time before it takes us out of commission", answered Marc.

Crystal Spires considered this for a few moments and then asked, "And If I say no, what happens then?"

"Nothing", said Marc, "We go our separate ways. Maybe you guys figure this out on your own, maybe you don't. Maybe this little germ goes on and kills all of us the whole world over. Our two races taken down by a mindless little bacterium, wouldn't that be ironic?"

Crystal Spires leaned back and thought through all that she had heard. The situation was nearly unthinkable, working with wild humans. But then could they, as the human Marc had said, ignore this opportunity?

"I will need to see to this treatment for myself. I want to better understand your claim that the disease affects a Human differently than a Soul", said Crystal Spires evenly. "Additionally, I want to ensure the Seekers you are holding are released before any form of an agreement is made."

Marc considered this and said, "Any chance you are up to a little field trip?"

"What do you mean?" inquired Crystal Spires

"I believe he wants to take you to their encampment", said Bright Moon softly.

Crystal Spires felt a wave of fear pass over her, "Go…go with you?"

"Best way I can make your request happen", said Marc with a shrug. "You can inspect the sick and the medicine we've cooked up. We'll also work on getting those Seekers out. To be honest I'll be happy when they are out of our home", he gave Bright Moon a grin and a wink. The Seeker just gave him an exasperated look.

"I suppose I do not have much of a choice", said Crystal Spires. She turned to Matthew who had been waiting silently as they had negotiated. "Healer Matthew, what will you do?"

"I will return to my duties and continue to treat the sick. I hope your mission goes well and we can indeed work with the Humans", answered Matthew.

Crystal Spires sighed, "Please do Matthew, but understand we will need to further discuss", she looked Marc up and down, "your choices when I return."

Matthew simply nodded, "We will, but I believe you will learn what I've come to know. They are not a threat to us."

"Yup, we are just a bunch of fun once you get to know us", said Marc with a smile, "Now, you don't mind wearing a blindfold, do you Crystal?"

* * *

####

* * *

Simon looked over Alexis. The little girl was doing better. Her fever was at last being lowered when a dose of COOL was applied. She was very tired, but seeing as it was getting close to midnight, it was very understandable. Her mother lay down next to her and tried to fit herself and Alexis on the narrow bed. This wasn't too easy as Sarah's pregnant body already took up a lot of space on the cot. Alexis fidgeted for a bit, but finally curled up against her mother

Simon looked down and smiled sadly. It was a beautiful sight, mother and daughter together. _'Would they even have a chance at this again, this moment of peace?'_ considered Simon. Between the Seekers and the illness, life seemed to have stacked the impossible against them.

He looked up to see Kate come into the hospital. By now the hospital was getting very full, between the sick humans and Seekers. With Kate's return he hoped Marc's plan had met with success. Simon wasn't sure about reaching out to the Souls for help. Most people here were not either. But it was true at this point they had very little to lose.

"Well, Marc pulled another minor miracle out of his hat", said Kate as she approached him, "We came back with one of their head healers."

"Terrific", said Simon disdainfully, "More worms the merrier. So where is this guy?"

"It's a woman, kind of young. But I guess age of body doesn't mean much to the Soul inside", said Kate.

"Whatever", said Simon sourly, "So where is _she_?"

"She was checking on the other Seekers first", replied Kate. She looked over to the entrance of the hospital, "Oh, there she is."

Simon looked up to see the Soul that Marc was escorting into the make-shift hospital. He took one look at the woman and felt all the blood drain from his face. She was looking around slowly when she caught sight of Simon, she too went pale.

Slowly, very slowly, Simon found his voice and whispered, "Annie?"


	10. United

For several long seconds Simon and Crystal Spires stood looking at each other. Both were as still as stone. It was Crystal Spires who broke the silence first, "I know you…you are Simon", then she frowned and look confused, "No, I mean my body knows you…I…I mean she knows you…" She trailed off and grew apprehensive as she gazed at Simon.

Simon, for his part, was still frozen, his face only registering pure shock. Both Kate and Marc could only look in confusion between the two, until Kate realized what was going on. "Of all the dumb luck…" she said while shaking her head slowly. With sudden swiftness, Simon came alive and began gathering up some notes on his desk, not looking at the Soul. He grabbed a couple books nearby and nearly ran to the exit of the hospital.

"Simon," said Marc trying to stop the doctor, but Simon just brushed past him without stopping and was gone down the tunnel. Marc watched as Simon left, still reeling from realization of whose body Crystal Spires inhabited. He turned to Crystal Spires and mentally kicked himself for not seeing that she was Annie, Simon's wife. Her hair was much shorter than it was in the picture Simon carried with him at all times and she no longer wore glasses, but even so he should have seen it. "I'm sorry, I didn't even realize…who you were to him", he said with some awkwardness.

Crystal Spires let out a little sigh in attempt to calm herself, but was still shaken by seeing Simon. She spoke softly, "You said the name of your Healer was Simon, but I didn't make the connection. I didn't even think he was still alive." She touched her head briefly before dropping it to her side and said in a near whisper, "I used to dream…" and she trailed off. With visible effort she took control of herself and looked around the Human's hospital and asked, "May I see the Seekers that are ill?"

"Yeah," replied Marc gesturing to the section of the hospital where the sick Seekers were staying, "Let's give Simon some time."

* * *

####

* * *

"This is some form of Human trick," said Seeker Twice Fires.

Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow felt herself growing annoyed. The fact she was getting irritated with one of her own kind only compounded her annoyance. She had grown use to Marc Walter's barbs and insults, but finding herself in an argument with her fellow Seeker was unexpected.

"There is no deception here, you heard Healer Crystal Spires speak. You have heard my words. The sickness affecting us is already spread among many in the city. The Human healer has found a potential cure for the disease. We will work with the Humans to attempt to stop the outbreak," she spoke the last part with difficulty. It was not lost on her the bizarreness of the situation where she was promoting the idea of working with Humans. Only hours ago she was planning on capturing or ending these very humans.

"I do not debate you or the Healer's words," said Twice Fires, "but this sickness is not possible. How can a simple bacteria cause such damage? This is somehow the Humans' doing."

"How the hell would we pull off something like that?" asked Scott. Scott and two other Humans were guarding the remaining Seekers in their holding cell. He had been watching Bright Moon and Twice Fires discuss the sickness and now broke into the conversation. "Does it look like we've got a bio-warfare lab down here?"

All the Seekers looked at Scott, and the Human was momentarily taken back that they would acknowledge his words. They had been doing their best to ignore their captors. Scott continued and addressed Seeker Twice Fires, "So what was our plan? Make a superbug, infect you, ourselves, and then try and come up with a cure? That has to be the dumbest idea, ever."

"Since you claim to be so knowledgeable, do you have an answer then to how such a disease came to be?" said Twice Fires condescendingly.

Scott regarded Twice Fires, his body was that of a big man and he looked Scott in the eye, daring him to respond. Fortunately Scott was up to the task, "I don't know how it is on the other planets you guys go to, but plagues do come out of nowhere on this world." Scott paused before he went on, "Spanish Flu in 1918 kill more than fifty million people worldwide, before that the Black Death killed more than two hundred million. Both spread fast, both seemingly unstoppable." He saw several of the Seekers look at him in surprise, apparently not knowing Earth had contained such dangers.

"Your medicine is primitive compared to ours, how can yours stop it while ours does not?" challenged Twice Fires.

Scott only shrugged, "You need to ask your Healers, but maybe it's not that different from the antibacterial-resistant strains that we encountered. We used our antibiotics too often and ended up evolving bacteria resistant to it. You guys use CLEAN and INSIDE CLEAN all the time, maybe a bacteria developed resistance in some way and now we all are getting hit."

Twice Fires still looked unconvinced by the Human's theory, but stopped arguing with Scott. Bright Moon herself had not known such diseases had occurred in Human history, had this world always been so filled with death? She rose, straightened her uniform, and addressed her fellow Seekers, "Regardless of how the disease began, we will perform our duty. We will organize to help transport our incapacitated brethren out and to a healing facility above ground. Prepare yourselves, we will leave shortly."

She exited the small holding area and found herself in the large room that the Humans called the Great Hall. Scott followed after her, still keeping a close eye on her. There were few human's here now, most either going to the small hospital to care for the ill or attempting to sleep elsewhere. Bright Moon sat down at one of the tables, she too felt like sleeping. This day had already been more taxing than any other day she could remember in her human body. Her thoughts drifting to her past lives, remembering the vast icy plains of the Mist World, she recalled a few hard days there as well .

"Hello, Bright Eyes," said a familiar voice behind her.

If it was possible for her to leap out of her own skin, Bright Moon would have done so. She jumped and spun around. There sitting behind her was the human girl Mia. She held a small knife in her one hand. She spun it back and forth expertly, the blade moving almost too fast to follow. She watched Bright Moon's movements carefully, like a predator.

Scott who had been watching the Seeker now turned to the girl and said, "Mia, it's okay, the Seekers aren't going to hurt anyone."

Mia snorted and then giggled, "I'm not worried about them. They should be worried about me." She stopped spinning her knife and pulled herself closer to where Bright Moon stood.

"Mia," warned Scott.

"I know Brother Scott, we all be friends now."

Scott rolled his eyes, "Wouldn't go that far, but we got a truce, right Seeker?"

Bright Moon eyes never left the girl or knife she carried. Her memories of facing the peculiar child in the tunnels still fresh in her mind. She said slowly, "Yes, I suppose that is the best way to put it, we have a truce. We do not fight with each other right now." She found saying it wasn't as impossible as she thought it would be.

Mia got up and gave a noncommittal shrug and looked at both Scott and Bright Moon, "Doesn't matter. Friends or enemies, It is coming for us."

Both Bright Moon and Scott gave Mia confused looks. "What do you mean Mia?" asked Scott.

"Death, its coming and it's going to eat us All", came Mia's strange answer. With that she began walking away from an unnerved Bright Moon and Scott, singing an odd tune.

* * *

####

* * *

"I am impressed with all that you have built down here", said Crystal Spires as she looked around the Great Hall. She and Marc walked through the hall after their visit to the hospital. Marc was giving her a very short tour of their sanctuary.

Marc smiled a little, "Its home."

"And you have lived here the entire time since we settled the city?" asked Crystal Spires.

"Living here in the city, yeah most of us have. But we only set this place up a little more than four years ago. Before that we had a couple different spots around the city."

Crystal Spires looked appraisingly at Marc, "And during that time you did not seek to harm us?"

Marc paused in consideration before he replied, seeking the best way to explain, "Crystal Spires, let me be clear. Did any of us fight with Souls when you guys started taking over? Yes many of us did. It was self-preservation, pure and simple. But when it became clear you had won, not just here but worldwide, there was little choice but to run and hide. You did not allow for surrender or accord."

Crystal Spires nodded in agreement but didn't interrupt and Marc continued, "I know a lot of survivors ran for the wilderness, trying to escape. The few of us that remained in the city had a hard choice to make. If we had any hope of surviving then we would need to make you believe we were gone. That meant not fighting, learning to hide, and being able to blend in."

The Healer reflected on Marc's words, "So you became non-hostile out of necessity?"

"Partly," said Marc, "but I like to think we might be a bit uncommon for resisting Humans."

"How so?" asked Crystal Spires. She was becoming truly curious about how these Humans existed.

Marc gestured to an old couch that made up a corner of the hall that severed as a small school area. They both sat down and Marc turned to the Soul and began to explain, "You have to understand that a lot of people down here really had nothing before you guys showed up. Myself, Kate, and Jason were already living on the streets before the invasion began. Others were not all that well off either. We were the misfits, the outcasts. We didn't belong to that world."

"To me that would be a terribly unhappy existence, to not be part of any family. As a Soul we are all family to each other," said Crystal Spires.

For a moment Marc looked unspeakably sad but it quickly cleared and he shook his head in disagreement, "But don't you see Crystal Spires, when you are not really part of the world, you don't miss it when it's gone. Many Humans hate Souls because of what you took from them – their world."

"Ah", said Crystal Spires in growing understanding, "You do not have such hatred towards us because you don't have such a sense of loss. In fact, you gained a family, the other human survivors."

"Right," said Marc with a thoughtful smile, "Now don't get me wrong. I'm not a fan of what your kind did, nor am I remotely interested in becoming a host. However, that doesn't mean I want to go around destroying Souls."

"Although," he gestured to where the Seekers were being held and said with a hint of anger, "some of you make it very difficult."

"I believe I comprehend now, thank you Marc," said Crystal Spires as she rose. "I am not sure how all of this plays out for your people. I can make no promises to your future…"

Marc held up his hand as he got up, "No I understand as well. Let's just try to make it to the future. It will not matter if we are dead from this plague. And right now any chance of that means getting Simon."

At the mention of Simon's name, Crystal Spires grew silent and looked away. "What will you say to him?" she said so softly that Marc hardly heard her.

"Honestly I'm not sure. We've never dealt with a Soul in someone one of us was…close to," answered Marc.

Still looking at the ground, Crystal Spires spoke a little louder, but just above a whisper, "May I speak with him?"

Marc thought about the request for a moment, "You can try, although I'm not sure he would want to see you right now."

* * *

####

* * *

Simon was in his room, going through a medical book on the human immune system when there was a knock on his door. He closed his eyes and tried to will the sound away. He didn't want to do this.

"Simon, can we please talk?" said Marc on the other side of the door.

Growling in anger Simon rose and opened his door prepared to yell at Marc when he saw who was with Marc. His wife Annie, or at least the body of Annie, stood next to him. She looked at him with her silver rimmed eyes filled with a mix of fear and sadness. His anger left in an instant and he felt weak inside. "You don't play fair, Marc."

"I know", said Marc without a trace of humor.

Simon regarded the two, and let out a shaky sigh, "I know what you are going to say, so don't bother."

"Great, I actually had no idea what to say to you. So you save me the trouble of thinking it up", replied Marc.

"You want me to work with them, work with…her…to help get a cure."

"That would be the long and short of it", said Marc.

They lapsed into silence for a moment and Simon turned back to his books. Crystal Spires who had been carefully watching Simon the entire time spoke up very softly to him, "Can I speak with you?" She looked back at Marc and added, "Alone."

Simon's whole body seemed to lose strength and he sat down heavily upon his bed. He looked sadly at Crystal Spires. "Fine", he said in a very flat tone.

"Are you sure?" asked Marc to Crystal Spires. The Soul nodded slowly, never taking her eyes off Simon. Marc shrugged and stepped back into the hall and closed the door behind him.

Simon watched her as she slowly sat down across from in a beat up old chair. He closed his eyes for several seconds, as if this would cause her to disappear, he opened them and she was still there. "What do I call you?" asked Simon.

"Crystal Spires" said the Soul quietly.

"Well Crystal, you want to talk, so talk. I don't think I have anything to say to you."

"I…" she began but stopped for a moment and looked like she was trying to clear her thoughts. Once again she began and said, "I want to say I am sorry for any pain I caused you. We never want to cause suffering."

Simon grunted, "Funny, I think that causing us pain is the only thing your kind does."

Crystal Spires hung her head, "I know…I am coming to see Humans in a new light. Matthew said Humans were not what we thought. I am seeing he is correct."

"Ah…so you've had some great epiphany and now you want to be friends, is that it?"

" I…I don't know. I don't know how to make it better, to cause less pain," she had folded her hands against her chest. Her shoulders shook gently and Simon realized she was sobbing softly.

He reached forward for her and she flinched back for a moment but then let him put his hand under her chin and pull her up. He could see a stream of tears down her face. He resisted a strong urge to pull her to him and hold her. "You say you are sorry for causing me pain, how then are you in pain?"

"Be…Because you…you are here…and the memories… the dreams. They are so strong," said Crystal Spires as more tears leaked down her face.

Simon pulled back and regarded the Soul. He could only shake his head in disbelief. He looked up at the ceiling in hope of some answer, finding none he slowly reach to her and pulled her next to him on the bed. She cried harder for a minute and then clung to him as she slowly stopped crying. After a bit she was silent, but her face stayed buried in Simon's chest.

"You know," began Simon, "we've watched you, I'm mean Souls in general, and we had come to the conclusion that when you take over a person you have access to all of the memories of the host, but the personality is gone. What remains are just empty memories, how to uses tools, speak the language, drive a car, stuff like that. Is that true? Because if it is, then why does Annie's memories cause you, Crystal Spires, so much pain?"

"It suppose to," sniffed Crystal Spires still pressed against Simon. "With other races it worked that way. But with Humans, some Humans at least, the memories are so strong. We can't always separate what is of us and what is of the body." She pulled away from his chest and looked at him, the silver in her eyes seemed to sparkle and Simon thought she had never looked more beautiful.

Simon wiped a few tears from her face, and traced with his fingers down her face, to her lips, and then across her jaw. Annie had always loved when he did it. Now when he did, Crystal Spires gave a little gasp and shivered against him. Their faces were only inches apart. It was impossible for him to resist, he whispered into her ear, "Annie?"

Crystal Spires froze against him and looked up at him, her expression unreadable. Simon pressed her, "Is she in there? Is there more than just memories?"

Crystal Spires breathed in and out several times, slowly calming herself and spoke in slightly unsteady tone, "Not as a voice or thoughts, but sometimes I feel…a presence…something more than just myself." She looked down at the ground, "No one wants to talk about it when this happens and it is treated as if it's just a rumor. The Comforters all claim it fades in time. But it didn't happen with me."

Simon sighed, "Well, I don't want to cause you pain, yet I do. And you don't want to cause me pain, yet you do." He added with a weak smile, "Aren't we a mess?"

Crystal Spires nodded and tried to smile as well, but couldn't quiet manage it. "Simon, I know I have no right to ask, but I must try none the less." She paused and took a moment to collect herself. "My people are dying, this disease is spreading. I, Crystal Spires a Soul, beg you, Simon a Human, to come to our aide."

"There is an old woman down in the hospital, likely dying, that earlier tonight said that mercy was something you granted when you had every reason not to. It sounded crazy when she said it then and it still sounds crazy now" answered Simon. Crystal Spires face fell, but Simon continued, "But you know what? It is crazy, but then I'm having a conversation with an alien who took over my wife's body. In the middle of an old sewer system making up my home. In a city fast coming apart from this disease. It seems absurdity is the new normal."

"Then you will help?" said Crystal Spires in amazement.

Simon stood up and held out his hand to her. "Yes," he said, "I will help."

She took his hand and said, "Thank you Simon. Whatever else happens, you have my gratitude till the very end of my last life."

"Well let's get started, or your last life might be sooner than you want."

* * *

####

* * *

Marc listened at Simon's door for a minute before heading away. He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to leave them alone, but he was sure Simon wouldn't physically harm Crystal Spires. Whether she could convince him to help was another thing entirely. But right now he had someone else he needed to talk to. He looked down the corridor and saw the door was open to Dell's room. He walked up to the small room and looked in. The big man was on his bed, his eyes closed.

"You are not sleeping, so you might as well as talk to me", said Marc.

"And how," rumbled Dell not opening his eyes, "do you know I'm not sleeping?"

"You're not snoring."

"I don't snore"

"Dell, everyone that sleeps in this hallway knows you snore. Hell, we've been worried that you might tip off the Seekers with that noise," said Marc with a bit of sarcasm.

Dell opened his eyes and sighed as he got up. "Ok, you want to talk. Then talk."

"I'm sorry," said Marc.

Dell frowned, "For what?"

"I know what I want us to do sounds crazy, hell, it is crazy, actually trying to work with the Souls to beat this plague. There are a million ways this can go wrong, but I just have to try. But I should realize you and others wouldn't feel that way. I should have known better," explained Marc.

"Marc, you don't owe me anything. I know you and I know deep down you've got some bad memories driving you," said Dell evenly. Marc shifted uncomfortably under Dell's words. "You've got a deep need to save everyone, even if they are an alien parasite. You don't need to apologize for that, it's who you are."

"But you go to understand you can't save them all, you will destroy yourself trying," explained Dell.

Marc looked down at the ground and said softly, "If I don't try, then I think it would end me just the same."

Dell huffed, "Sure makes you a glutton for punishment."

"You don't know the half of it", said Marc. He quickly explained about Crystal Spires and Simon. When he was done, Dell sat back and barked out a laugh.

"You, my man, make excellent proof that God is real and he's screwing with you. What are the odds you find a Soul out of millions that happened to be living in Simon's wife," said Dell shaking his head in amusement.

Marc slid down and sat on the ground and laughed himself, "Yeah this whole thing feels a little like divine judgment. Maybe the big man is cleaning his slate and starting over. And all of us, including Souls, are getting shoved under."

Dell looked at him speculatively, "You would still try and stop it, wouldn't you?"

"Sister Mary-Margret would wrap a ruler against my hands if she was here, but yeah I likely would," said Marc. He sighed and straighten up, "I could use you up there…I need someone who's got my back."

Dell groaned, "Yeah, you wouldn't last five minutes without me. Guess I can't back out now."

* * *

####

* * *

"You found Mia wandering through these tunnels all by herself?" asked Bright Moon.

"Yeah, half-starved and half-crazy," answered Scott. He paused, thinking about the day they found Mia, "She isn't starving any more, but as for the rest…well you see how she acts."

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow had asked Scott about Mia and found him willing to talk about the girl. Scott explained how a few years ago Marc and he had been out looking for supplies and stumbled across Mia in the maze of tunnels above their home. At first they had been unable to even approach the child; she attacked anyone that came near her. With a bit of food they managed to coax her to follow them back to their base. It had taken more than two weeks before she would even speak, and then only tell them her name was Mia.

"She attacked us, one human child against twelve us…and she was successful," said Bright Moon as she gave Scott an unhappy look, "Where did she come from?"

"We've never figured that out. She says she doesn't remember," replied Scott.

Bright Moon thought about the possibility of inserting a Soul into the girl and learning more about her origins, but discounted the idea. For some reason Bright Moon knew no Soul would want to be joined with the girl, whatever secrets she held would be too much for a gentle Soul to learn.

She dismissed such thoughts and saw Marc, Dell, Simon, and Healer Crystal Spires were returning. Bright Moon looked in surprise that Crystal Spires was smiling and seemed at easy around the other humans. She had originally been nervous and fearful around the Humans. She wondered what had happened in the time the Healer was with the Humans. Crystal Spires left with Simon to begin packing up his equipment as others began to get ready to leave

Marc sat down and addressed her, "Okay, we are about ready here. Now let me be clear. We will work with you, we assist where we can. We'll do our level best to stay out of the way of the masses, no need to create undo panic. But if we even get a whiff of Seekers with sleepy gas, I will pull the plug on this little partnership, got it?"

Bright Moon nodded in agreement, "I understand, I can't promise that all Seekers will react well when they learn of this 'truce'. But with Crystal Spires's help you will not need to fear us. But do I have assurances from you that your people will not cause any problems for us?"

"We've got just as much too lose as you do, I'll keep my people in line," answered Marc.

Bright Moon looked down for a moment and then back up at Marc, her expression was hard to read. She said slowly, "If we survive this, it will not change things between us, we will still be enemies."

Marc wondered if he heard a trace of regret in her voice. He regarded her while he thought about his answer. Only a few hours ago they had been ready to kill each other and now they were going to be working together. "I know", said Marc, "You are still a Seeker and I'm still a wild human. But if I've learned anything, you never know what to expect. It is a strange little world."

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow considered Marc's words and said, "Yes. The strangest."

* * *

####

* * *

Darren took a few moments to rest at the lobby of the hospital. He sat down heavily in a chair, he was exhausted. During the last few hours he had turned from one crisis to another. The disease was reaching epidemic levels, thousands of Souls were sick and the death toll was steadily rising. He had just come from attempting to save a critically ill Soul. The Soul's body, a middle aged man, had begun to rapidly deteriorate and Darren and his fellow healers had tried to extract the Soul. But they had been too late; the Soul was already infected and dying of the disease.

There was little they could do for the other patients, they were giving large doses of NO PAIN, but that did not treat the symptoms. It only allowed the sick some measure of peace before the end. He badly wished that his mentor, Fords Deep Waters, was here. He felt completely out of his depths with this plague. Fords had always been calm, no matter the situation. But perhaps no one was truly capable of handling such disaster.

Darren looked up as he heard a commotion from the entrance of the hospital. There were a number of voices, some of them louder and coarser than he was used to. He got up from his seat and approached the entrance. He could now make out some of the words being spoken.

"You…You can't be here," said a voice quietly but with clear alarm in it. He recognized the voice as the receptionist.

"Really, there is no need to go on like this. Your acting like it's the end of the world," said another voice, harsher than the first.

"Well, maybe it is the end of the world," amended the voice, "But still no reason to get all worked up."

Darren turned the corner and came face to face with a young man with spiky brown hair. There were several other men and women around him. Darren blinked in surprise. They were all carrying a number of boxes of equipment and seemed somehow very out of place. The man looked Darren over and then Darren caught sight of his eyes. With a slow dawning realization, Darren saw these people were Humans, wild Humans. He gaped in surprise.

The man smiled broadly at Darren's reaction and said, "Hi, we are here to help!"


	11. Progress

Marc Walters fought madly against his restraints. He was tied down by his arms and legs, the chair had further chains on his midsection keeping him locked in a seated position. Around him in this dim little room were a number of Seekers. He screamed at them, "We. Had. A. Deal!" They just looked back at him with impassive faces. The crowd of Seekers parted and Bright Moon on Fallen Snow appeared before him. "Let me go!" he growled at her.

She cocked her head to the side and said with a warm voice, "Let you go? We can't do that Marc. You're a dangerous wild human. You'll attack us."

"Damn you, we were trying to help!"

Bright Moon smiled broadly, "But you will help, right after we are done here." With that she pulled from behind her a small metal cylinder – a cryotank – and scalpel. Marc's eyes widen in fear as she approached him and he thrashed wildly in a vain hope of escaping.

"Marc, don't fight it," said Bright Moon happily as she bent down above him with the blade getting ready to cut, "once it is over we can all be friends, won't that be nice?"

Before him the cryotank began to open, cold mist spilling over the sides. Inside something began to move, wiggle, and squirm out. Marc opened his mouth to scream…

…and he bolted upright in the small hospital couch he had been attempting to get some sleep on. His sudden jerk forward left him in an awkward position on the too small couch and he found he had a bad crick in his neck. He leaned forward and began to rub the tightness in his neck out.

Jason who was in a chair besides him, trying to get a little rest as well opened his eyes and glanced over to him, "Problem?"

"Nah…just dreaming", replied Marc. He sighed and got up. He had gotten what small amount of sleep he could and didn't feel like going back to sleep if all he was going to have was nightmares. He laughed at himself. Really all he was doing was swapping one nightmare for another. Except for this nightmare was very real and very deadly.

Marc went over to a small table that had a coffee maker on it and began to brew some coffee. He was glad that Souls still felt the need for caffeine and hadn't completely done away with the stuff. He glanced up at the clock on the far wall, it read quarter past 11, but it was impossible to tell if it was AM or PM. Marc wasn't sure exactly if it was morning or evening anymore.

Everything had been a blur once they entered the hospital. As bad as he thought this outbreak was, it was so much worse. By the time his little band of Humans had gotten to Matthew and his healers it was full on chaos in the hospital. The illness that infected both Souls and Humans had half a dozen of Marc's people sick and thousands of Souls gravely ill. Worse, there were signs that the illness was spreading, despite the Seekers best efforts to seal off the city. Chicago was still a major hub of transportation around the world. Cars, trains, boats, and Soul shuttles routinely traveled in and out of the city. This flow of traffic was brought to a halt as soon as the Souls realized the disease wasn't responding to their medicine. But unknowing infected Souls were already carrying the plague out of the city.

Marc was impressed with the Souls ability to work on trying to stop and contain the outbreak. He had heard briefly on a TV reports of airports worldwide shutting down and Souls who had recently been in Chicago sealing themselves off in attempt to thwart the illness. But even the Souls had their limits, it would only take one mistake somewhere and the disease would spread.

Against all this, Marc and their little band of wild Humans had thrown themselves into the fight. Simon's simple antibiotic, terribly primitive in comparison to Soul drugs, proved to be able to help beat back the illness where Soul technology could not. Marc didn't understand what miracle lead to this happening, but it meant that the Souls needed them. Of course, to make any meaningful amount of the drug meant that Simon needed access to Soul equipment and supplies. So Souls and Humans had done the unthinkable and agreed to a truce and would work together to stop this plague. And to Marc's surprise, their little alliance was holding.

They were turning out the antibiotic as fast as possible. The drug could restrict the progress of the infection and combined with some COOL, a person- Human or Soul - could recover. But it wasn't a cure, it only delayed the disease. Worse, the disease sometimes randomly accelerated it symptoms, the infected bleeding from the nose and ears. When this happened, medicine or not, death soon followed. Marc felt a deep pain as he thought about it; the Humans had had their first death from this form of the illness. Todd, brother to Sarah and best friend to her husband Mike had started bleeding from his nose and was dead only forty minutes later. He had been like the Seeker that Simon and Bright Moon had tried to save earlier. Proving the illness was just as fatal to Humans as it was to Souls.

Marc leaned back against the wall, closed his eyes, and rubbed his forehead as the coffee maker gurgled and sputtered while making a pot of coffee. He felt like they were right on the edge an abyss, just a little push and they would go hurtling off.

He opened his eyes and was about to get a coffee cup when he heard a light gasp and then a twitter of giggles. Marc looked over to the entrance of the small waiting area Jason and he had been trying to sleep in and saw two teenage girls. They both were looking at him, eyes wide as possible, and the light in the room reflecting off the silver in their eyes.

"I told you, Summer Sky, Humans, wild Humans were here", spoke one girl in a light voice.

"He's looking right at us", whispered the other one in a nervous gasp.

Jason looked up at the noise of the two Soul girls and gave a grunt, "It's like we're living in a zoo."

Marc looked the two girls over, their bodies look enough alike that it was a good chance they were sisters. Both couldn't be much older than fifteen, only a little older than Mia. Marc was glad she wasn't here now, Mia would not have responded well to these two Souls at all. Marc addressed them, "Where are your parents?"

The one Soul named Summer Sky gave a little eek of noise, but the other, the bolder of the two, replied, "Our guardian Dawn Runner is ill, she is being treated downstairs. We heard your kind was in the facility, so we went to find you."

"Well you found us. You should go back to your Dawn Runner and be with her," said Marc evenly.

"Why? She is receiving medicine, so she will be fine. Is it true that it's your medicine?"

Summer Sky spoke up softly, "Red Leaves Caught in the Wind, perhaps we should not bother these Humans."

Marc sighed heavily. Dealing with Souls could be exhausting; their tendency toward innocence and naivety meant that they didn't always handle tough subjects well. In their mind medicine just worked, take a dose and you would be fine. The idea of a terminal illness was so foreign an idea to them, some simply refused to accept what was happening around them.

"Look, Red Leaves and Summer Sky, I don't know what you heard but the medicine is not a cure. It's holding back the infection, that's all. It can still be deadly. You should be with your parent…err…guardian if things go bad," said Marc in as gentle a voice as he could muster.

The two girls looked at him with their eyes wide in alarm, "Dawn Runner could die?" said Summer Sky in a shaky voice.

"Well that's why we are here," said Marc, "Our Healer is working with your Healers to come up with a permanent cure. Hopefully we get one and then no one needs to die."

Both Souls nodded in unison, then turned and left down the hallway. Marc went back to his coffee, but he heard Red Leaves down the hall, "See, they weren't so scary", he didn't hear Summer Sky's response. Shaking his head he poured himself a large cup of the coffee and took a sip. "Blach," he said out loud. The coffee was really awful.

"Jason, I'm going to see if there is anything new with Simon. You good?" ask Marc. His only reply was a faint snore from Jason. Taking that as confirmation Marc headed out of the waiting room.

* * *

####

* * *

"Darren, I don't see the other supply box of COOL," said Kate as she rummaged around the supply closet. She bent down and looked under a number of boxes and found nothing. She got back up and came face to face with the Healer Darren. She glanced down and saw he was holding a bottle of SLEEP in his right hand.

Kate immediately jumped back in alarm and brought her fists up, prepared to fight. Darren's reaction was to run for the door of the supply closet in a panic. Realizing her mistake, Kate dropped her hands and said, "Sorry…Sorry, didn't mean to get all jumpy."

Darren was still cowering against the door, quivering. He looked down at the bottle of SLEEP in his hands and also understood why Kate had reacted in such a fashion. He straightened and said meekly, "I apologize. I did not mean to startle you. I just thought we could use SLEEP for some of the patients. We are using a considerable amount of COOL and NO PAIN. It would allow us to extend our supplies.

"No, that's a great idea. Just…warn me next time," replied Kate. She saw the gray haired Healer visibly relax. She explained, "I once got trapped in a small room by a Seeker, he tried to gas me. Just brings up bad memories."

"Oh," said Darren, not knowing what else to say. He was still nervous working alongside this Human. He found that she was quick and efficient, but could be set off by the smallest of things. He had no desire to face the small woman's wrath.

He opened the supply closet's door and they both stepped into the frantic emergency room of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. About them bustled healers and comforters as they handled the mass of ill Souls streaming into the hospital. At first the Healers had tried to treat the sick in small rooms off the emergency room, but were soon overwhelmed with stricken Souls. Now the emergency room had become a triage center, evaluating the condition of the ailing Souls and sending them to emergency tents located outside the hospital. If the Soul's body showed signs of bleeding from the nose or ears, they would be quickly sent to be operated on, to remove the Soul from the host body. Sometimes this was successful, but too often the small worm like body of the Soul would be dying by the time it was removed.

Kate had learned early on indeed Souls could be removed from the body of a Human safely, before the Human host died. Bright Moon had been lying when she said the body had to die first before a Soul could be removed. The Souls were very nervous about her seeing the procedure and did their best to make sure she didn't see the removal up close. For the time being Kate was content to let them have their secret, but if by some miracle they survived this plague, it would be top of her list to learn how to do.

She approached two Souls, a middle aged couple, standing in line to be treated. Kate pulled out her clipboard and asked the couple, "What are your names?"

The woman who seemed to be the healthier of the two answered while she attended to her partner, "I am Long Thread Weaving and my partner is called Countless Stars. Both our host bodies are feeling ill. We had hoped to overcome the illness on our own, to not further burden the Healers, but Countless Stars is worsening." She was looking with concern at Countless Stars. The man did not look well, he was pale, sweating, and his breathing was difficult.

"Ok, has he had any signs of bleeding from the nose or ears? Any signs of convulsion or seizures?"

Long Thread Weaving shook her head and then looked closer at Kate. Her eyes widened in amazement. Kate sighed; she was getting use to this response from the Souls that realized she wasn't one of them. Some Souls were so busy that they hardly noticed her as a Human, others reacted in outright panic, and oddly enough one young Soul had smiled and said he was pleased to meet her. He had been kind of cute.

"There are rumors that your kind was in the hospital, but I didn't believe them. I never thought I would meet a soulless human", spoke Long Thread Weaving in soft surprise, but she still looked with apprehension at Kate.

Kate resisted the urge to get angry, she was dreadfully tired and it would be easy to vent on the Souls in front of her, but instead she said not all that calmly, "I don't appreciate being called soulless. My soul is just fine as it is."

Long Thread Weaving looked in confusion at Kate, not understanding what she meant. Kate let out a frustrated sigh and continued on, hoping to get through these two Souls as fast as possible, "And how are you doing? Are you showing any symptoms?"

"I feel weakened and I have a fever, but no other indicators of progression of the disease."

"Ok, I need you to go out the east doors and head to the large tent marked number three. They will treat you there", instructed Kate as she pointed towards the correct doorway.

Countless Stars reached out and touched Kate's hand, "Why?" he asked in a hoarse voice, "Are you doing this?"

Kate reflected on his question. At first the idea was to help and guard Simon while he worked to make his antibiotic for the Souls. In turn the humans would receive a supply of the medicine for their sick. But the plan had quickly fallen apart; the situation at the hospital was bad and getting worse by the minute. The Healers were desperate. They would take help from anyone, even a wild, soulless, woman like herself. In her time here she had seen numerous ill Souls and Kate couldn't help but be moved. They were her enemy, but they were also a scared, suffering, people. Kate answered Countless Stars' question, "Because, whether you believe me or not, I do have a soul, and I can't sit around and not help."

As the two Souls left, Darren came over to her. He had been processing new arrivals as well and had overheard part of the conversation. "They didn't mean to be rude", he said softly, "They just…don't know how to talk to you."

Kate sighed, "Is it really so hard? Just talk to me like a normal person."

"We only know what we've been told about Humans, that you are a cruel, angry, and violent race. When we see you helping with the sick, sharing your medicine, we…don't know how to respond."

Kate turned and looked him in the eye. "We wouldn't be so angry or violent if your kind would just leave us alone. You invade us. Steal our bodies. What, you just expect us to be ok with that?"

Darren looked away, not wanting to meet her eyes, "I…know. Our existence is tied to another body, always. It is what we are. We don't think of it from your perspective. I guess you have a right to be…angry."

Kate looked down as well, "Well…we aren't going to resolve Human / Soul relationships in one night. At least you're trying to see it from our point of view."

"So few of us have met wild...umm...natural Humans before, we haven't spent much time thinking about such things. I'm sorry for that."

Kate gave Darren a slightly lopsided smile, "Well, you spent the better part of eight hours with me, and you are already thinking about how we feel."

Darren smiled a bit, "I am learning…I know not to corner you in a small room."

"Oh, not only a doctor but a comedian", said Kate dryly.

Darren gave her an uncertain look, not completely understanding Kate's joke. She considered explaining it to him when she caught sight of Scott coming down the hallway. He saw her as well and moved through the crowd. Some Souls saw the lack of silver in his eyes and backed away from him automatically. This made it easy for him to reach her.

Scott stifled a yawn and asked, "So how are you holding up?" Like her, Scott was exhausted.

Kate blew out some air, blowing some of her long bangs out her face. "It's let up a little in the last half hour. I think unless it's really urgent, most Souls are staying away from the hospital."

"But if they wait too long, the illness can reach a fatal level. We might not be able to beat this thing, but we can hold it off," said Scott irritably.

Darren spoke up, "Many of us do not want to be a burden. They realize the Healers are at their limit. They will stay away so others in greater need can reach us."

Scott closed his eyes and said with evident frustration, "How can we help if they stay away?"

Darren blinked at Scott with a touch of surprise, "You are frustrated because you cannot help more of us, you Humans continue to surprise me. But we strive to be selfless, to not cause strife. Many will endure the illness to hopefully save others."

Scott just rubbed his temples, "Oh I am too tired to argue about this. How are you guys doing with medical supplies?"

Kate looked at Darren, "We need more of everything." Darren nodded in agreement.

"Well I'm my way to meet with Simon and Crystal Spires. I'll pass along the message."

Kate perked up and gave Scoot and expectant look, "Good news? Have they got something?" Darren also looked hopeful.

Scott shrugged, "I don't know, just that there is a meeting planned. Keep your fingers crossed."

* * *

####

* * *

Marc rounded the corner of the hallway and nearly ran into Bright Moon on Fallen Snow. The Seeker was talking to a short older man. His immediate reaction was jump away from her in alarm, his recent nightmare still fresh in his memory. Some of his coffee sloshed out of his mug and spilled on his shirt. He groaned as he tried to clean his shirt. She regarded him with him with some concern, "What is wrong?"

"Uhh…nothing really, just lack of sleep and bad coffee," said Marc as he tried to wring some of the coffee from his shirt.

He gave up trying to clean his shirt and looked Bright Moon over. The Seeker looked like she had seen better days as well. Her usually perfect black uniform was dirty and disheveled; her hair still in pony tail but looking like she could use a shower.

After they had reached the Hospital, Bright Moon and the other Seekers well enough to work had left to assist with closing off the city and keeping order. Marc had seen hardly any signs of the Seekers while he and the others had been at the hospital. He was fairly certain this was Crystal Spires doing, the Healer using her influence to shelter the Humans. He wondered with some unease why she was back.

"Marc, this is Seeker Skyward Into the Night," said Bright Moon as she indicated the Soul she had been talking to before Marc arrived.

Skyward Into the Night did not look pleased to see Marc. He was actually frowning quite severely at the Human. Marc's face was a mirror image of Skyward's; he scowled at the older Seeker. "Yeah, I know who he is," glowered Marc, "He's your Boss."

Bright Moon was surprised on Marc's announcement of Skyward Into the Night's identity. He grinned at her surprise and she huffed softly, "More of your skills and resources?"

"Exactly"

Skyward gave Bright Moon a momentarily strange look but then addressed Marc, "Not quite accurate, human. I am Bright Moon on Fallen Snow's supervisor and advisor, not her 'Boss'"

Marc rolled his eyes, "Whatever, so why are you here?"

Bright Moon look somewhat disconcerted and started to speak when Skyward Into the Night interrupted her. "We are here to discuss the arrangement made by Healer Crystal Spires and yourself. I have…concerns. Crystal Spires needs to answer them to my satisfaction."

"We have Armageddon on the door step and you want to talk about a performance review, that's great," commented Marc, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I am not blind to the situation or your people's assistance…but that assistance is unexpected. It has caused a number of us a great many worries. I wish to address and resolve them," said Skyward calmly.

Marc had a feeling he and the rest of the Humans would not be too happy on how Skyward Into the Night would 'resolve' things. He pushed himself to remain calm, he needed to see what the Seeker would be up to, but they might need to move quickly. He said a bit too sharply, "Fine. Let's get your worries taken care of. We've got a meeting coming up soon with the Healers and Simon."

Skyward Into the Night warily regarded Marc, looking him over as though he had found a particularly unpleasant rodent in his home, but he said no more and continued down the hall. For a moment Bright Moon on Fallen Snow looked conflicted, as though she wanted to talk with him. But she turned and quickly made up the distance to her fellow Seeker. Marc balled his hands into fists and glared at the two Seekers before opening them and pushing his anger and anxiety away.

He caught up to Bright Moon and asked, "How are you doing? Nearly half your team was taken down by this bug before we got here."

Her eyebrows knotted together so tightly that Marc thought at first she was frowning at him, but he saw she was instead trying to make sense of his question. He could see she was stunned he would ask. She replied slowly, "I am…very tired. I have shown no signs of the disease, but I am taking your Healers medicine regularly. I am able to continue working. The afflicted members of my team have been receiving care."

"How is it in the city? We've been swamped since we came in."

"Greatly disordered, there is much fear about the disease. The shutdown of traffic in and out of the city is already causing supply problem."

"You hear they have a case of the disease reported in New York?"

Bright Moon nodded sadly, "Yes and another in Arizona."

"I hadn't heard about that one," said Marc with unease. "Getting down to the wire, better hope Simon and Matthew can come up with a long term cure. Speaking of..." Marc looked ahead and saw Simon, Scott, Matthew, and Crystal Spires talking in a small huddle.

As they neared the small group they could hear Simon with more than a small measure of excitement in his voice, "Yes…and we could follow up the first release with a secondary chaser acting as filter. It would relieve the kidneys from having to take it out of the body." Matthew nodded vigorously in agreement. Scott took sight of them as Marc and the Seekers approached. Even with his unhappy look at the two Seekers, Scott couldn't stop the excitement in his voice, "We've got something."

"Hallelujah," said Marc even as he did his best to stifle a yawn.

They gathered in a small conference room with a large wooden table taking up most of the room's space. The Soul Healers and Simon took up the middle, while the Seekers sat on one side and Marc and Scott sat on the other. Even though exhaustion was present on everyone, there was a nervous excitement in the air. Marc noticed that only Skyward Into the Night looked unhappy, but then something about the Soul told Marc that he was routinely unhappy.

Simon rubbed his face; he looked like he had at least two days beard growth. He looked weary to his very bones, but his eyes were alight with exhilaration. He regarded Marc, "I was telling Scott, the medical technology is amazing…it would take decades, if not centuries, for us to replicate it."

"Glad you're enjoying the new toys, doc. Got good news?"

Crystal Spires spoke up in her soft manner, "Yes, preliminary tests are very encouraging. We will need to run a few more trials, but I believe we can successfully stop the infection."

Marc let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding. He saw that Bright Moon had done so as well. For a very brief moment she smiled at him, but then realized what she was doing and quickly looked away.

"May I ask. How did you come to this remedy?" asked Skyward Into the Night. "Previous attempts were completely unsuccessful."

Crystal Spires smiled fondly at Simon and said, "The medicine is a unique combination, both Soul and Human medical techniques working together to destroy the bacterial infection. We are using Simon's base antibiotic and our medicine to improve its delivery."

"Yes," said Simon picking up when Crystal Spires stopped, "Part of the problem with any antibiotic is getting it to where it needs go and getting enough of it there to do any good. By combining it with the Souls' drugs, and to be honest drug is the wrong word, it's not really chemicals…more like a smart delivery system…"

"Ok…Ok…You're rambling Simon." said Marc holding up his hands, but smiling good-naturedly at the doctor, "I get it, combining the medicines together makes a super drug. How soon will you know?"

Matthew now answered in a soft and tired voice, "Another set of tests, perhaps in about two hours."

"And if successful, how long to make enough for those who are ill?" asked Bright Moon.

"That is the good news," informed Crystal Spires, "If this treatment is successful, we can use existing supplies to create the new 'super drug' as Marc Walters puts it. We could have medicine ready by early tomorrow."

Scott couldn't help but laugh, "Well someone call Guinness, this one has got to be a first. First Human / Soul collaborative effort will end up saving the city."

Crystal Spires paused and considered Scott's words. "Yes, remarkable isn't it?"

At the end of the table, Skyward Into the Night cleared his throat and said, "Since there is good news on the medical front, perhaps we can turn to other matters." All turned to look at the small man the Soul inhabited. Marc stopped himself from letting out a curse, "Well that was quick," he muttered.

"Seeker, what do you mean?" asked Crystal Spires.

"Healer Crystal Spires, I am troubled you don't see the issue at hand," said Skyward, gesturing to the Humans at the end of the table. "You have formed an alliance with Human Rebels. Without consulting anyone else, I might add."

Crystal Spires looked at the Seeker, frowning slightly, "It was my judgment that the Humans' offer of assistance was genuine. Time was of the essence, I did not have time to ask everyone for permission. As we have clearly shown, the agreement has been beneficial to all."

"That remains to be seen and I believe we have time enough to review your decisions now. I am interested in Healer Matthew's dealings with these rebels." Skyward leaned towards Matthew, "How long, Healer, have you been working with these Humans?"

Matthew shifted uncomfortably under the Seeker gaze for a moment and the replied, "I met Scott Adderman nearly three years ago, he was attempting to gather medical supplies from the hospital when I discovered him. I…know I should have reported him right away, but he implored me…begged me for help. The other human with him was very ill…his appendix had burst. He would have died without treatment. I am healer, I had to help."

"But why were the Seekers not contacted?"

"I was going to…but the human told me that he would rather suffer and die than be turned over to the Seekers. Even in his weakened state he resisted my efforts to treat him. But I could not simply watch him die. So I promised not to inform the Seekers. I do not lie and I keep my promises."

Seeker Skyward scrutinized Matthew and asked, "However, you continued to assist them, why?"

"Matthew, don't answer him. You don't owe him an explanation," said Marc flatly.

Seeker Skyward gave Marc a hard glare and he began to rebuke Marc when Matthew gently interrupted, "No, Marc it is alright. I will answer. Seeker, the reason I continued to assist the Humans was because they saved my partner's life."

This explanation caused a number of surprised looks from the other Souls at the table. Skyward frowned, "What do you mean?"

"It was during a snow storm, two years back. Sings From the Shadows was driving late at night to come see me at the hospital. The weather was bad, she should not have risked driving, but she was concerned about me." Matthew paused before he continued, "The road was icy and her vehicle skidded off road and crashed. Because of the storm no one else was around, well no one except Scott Adelman."

Scott spoke up now, "I saw her car go off the road, nobody came so I went to check on her. She had been knocked unconscious, bad hit to the head. We took her to Matthew," he smiled in remembrance, "He was quiet surprised to see me again."

"And I was very grateful for the Scott and the other Humans for rescuing her. Since then I have helped them when I could."

Skyward regarded Scott with skepticism, "Convenient you were available when the accident happened."

Marc smiled at Skyward, but the smile wasn't a friendly one, "Not random chance, we had been keeping tabs on Matthew and Sings From the Shadows. He had helped us and I believe in repaying our debts."

"More likely looking for an opportunity to gain favor with an overly trusting Soul", said Skyward darkly.

Marc's jaw locked in anger and he glared at Skyward Into the Night. The Seeker returned Marc's glare with a look of smugness. He tilted his head and spoke with contempt, "Yes, you manipulate the situation to your advantage, don't you Marc Walters. As you do now, attempting to influence us into allowing your kind to continue to exist."

There was silence around the room and all eyes went to Marc. He stared at Skyward Into the Night for long seconds and then he threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, you are pretty good, but I'm guessing you don't play poker." Skyward scowled as the Human laughed at him. "You guys never know how to keep a convincing poker face."

Skyward opened his mouth but Marc went on, "You're trying to hide it, but this is driving you crazy. You have the three of us in this meeting, Simon working with the Healers on coming up with a cure, and the rest helping around the hospital. The last thing you want is your people to start warming up to us."

The Seeker scowled, "You are dangerous, deceitful, and threat to all of us."

"No." said Marc firmly, "You need us to be monsters and murders. You desperately need all Humans to be a threat. Because if we're all monsters, then it's OK if you take our world, take our bodies, and kill those who resist. We would not be worthy of any of it." Marc glanced around the room, with the exception of Skyward Into the Night, the other Souls did not meet his gaze.

"You are not worthy of anything! I have been here before we took your world. You were destructive creatures who warred with each other constantly, who polluted your world, and starved millions without care," raged the Seeker.

Marc answered, no longer with anger, but with calm clarity, "And yet I and my people have done none of these things. We have very little and want very little. I am not going to try to excuse what you think humanity did or did not do, Seeker Skyward Into the Night. If you call it manipulation to seek to survive, then you are not only a hypocrite, but deeply stupid." He rose up and addressed Simon, "How soon can you be ready to leave?"

For a moment Simon was too shocked to respond, but then he slowly nodded and got up. Both Crystal Spires and Matthew rose up to protest, but Marc cut them off. "I told you how this would work. We make the antibiotic, while working on a cure and _without_ the Seekers threatening us."

Marc sighed before he continued, "Well consider us threatened. We are done here."


	12. Resolve

"Wait," said Skyward Into the Night through clenched teeth. Marc and the other Humans stopped and looked back at the Seeker. He was standing and was glaring at Marc Walters. Slowly, as if the words were being pulled out against his will, "You are not being threatened. You do not need to leave."

Marc didn't move but said, "Sure feels like we're being threatened."

Skyward continued to scowl at Marc, "If I plan on threatening you, you will know it. I would have not come with just Bright Moon on Fallen Snow, but would have brought dozens of Seekers."

"I'm pretty sure if they were available you would have."

"What you believe doesn't interest me."

Marc and Skyward continued to glare at each other, neither one willing to back down. Crystal Spires spoke up, still in her quiet voice, but firmly, "Marc Walters and Skyward Into the Night please sit down. Marc, while you and your kind are in this facility you will not be in danger, unless you are the ones doing the threatening. You have my word on it."

Marc considered Crystal Spires words and asked, "Even if Skyward ordered you to turn us over?"

The Healer shook her head with and said with some exasperation, "We do not 'order' each other to do anything against their will. Seeker Skyward will not be doing anything against my instructions." She looked pointedly at the older Seeker. The Seeker slowly nodded in agreement but his sour look remained on his face. He spoke to Bright Moon on Fallen Snow, "These Humans are so volatile Seeker Bright Moon, I commend you for your patience when dealing with them."

Before Bright Moon could respond Marc interrupted, "Funny, we weren't the ones just now screaming about destructive humans. Who exactly is the emotionally unstable one here?"

Skyward turned back to Marc, his face reddening with anger. Before he could respond, Crystal Spires spoke, this time not softly, "Marc, please stop harassing Skyward. Seeker Skyward I will ask you the same. This argument is nonproductive, we have greater concerns facing us."

At Crystal Spires' scolding Skyward Into the Night features softened and he asked, "Healer, may I speak with you in private? I believe…your current company is causing a good deal of distraction."

Crystal Spires bobbed her head, "Yes, I think that would be best. Marc would you and the others wait outside?"

"Sure…think we need some fresh air," said Marc icily as he and the other humans left. Once outside the meeting room Marc stormed down the empty hallway, putting as much distance between himself and the Seeker. He leaned against a wall and exhaled loudly in anger. Scott and Simon followed after him. Simon came up to him and said, "Marc…we are so close to a cure. We can't stop now."

"I know," sighed Marc, "but the closer you get to a cure, the more they will press us. If we do stop this infection, this little alliance will be over before we can blink."

"Marc, Crystal Spires will not do that to us, we've made real progress with the Souls. They realize we are not a threat to them, that we can be peaceful," argued Simon.

"You mean the alien that's living in your wife's head? You trust it?" replied Marc.

Simon's jaw opened in shock and then snapped shut in anger. Marc held up his hands pleadingly to Simon, "I get it, she looks and sounds like Annie, and maybe a little of Annie is still in there. And you want to believe she's on our side."

"Matthew has sided with us, you trust him," countered Simon.

"Yeah and we took the better part of a year to be sure he wouldn't sell us out to the Seekers before we approached him. Maybe Crystal Spires is willing to side with us, but we need to be careful on who we trust" put in Scott.

"Regardless of Matthew and Crystal Spires," said Marc as he pointed back to where room they had just come from, "that Seeker Skyward is not going be interested in anything other our deaths."

"That guy is just a little tightly wound, even by Human standards. Got to wonder how the other Souls handle him," remarked Scott.

"I'm only glad he was so easy to get angry, made him that much easier to handle. But I don't think he's going to give up that easily." Marc pushed off from the wall he was leaning against, "The point is, Simon, we need to stick to our guns on this. If they push us we need to be able to push back, and right now our only real card we have is our little medicine."

Simon nodded glumly, "Fine, I'll keep it mind…I should get back to the lab. We still got work to do if we are going to make a cure."

Marc and Scott watched as the doctor left. Marc leaned over to Scott and asked quietly, "How's Eric doing?"

Scott replied in an equally quiet voice, "Very busy, he guesses at least a couple more hours."

Marc sighed, "Well, can't be helped. Just be ready."

Scott was about to answer when the door to the conference room opened and Skyward Into the Night marched out. He regarded the two humans with displeasure for a moment and then continued down the hallway alone. Crystal Spires came out next followed by Bright Moon and Matthew.

"Marc, may I speak with you?" asked Crystal Spires. Marc shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the Healer. Fatigue was clear on her small body as she looked up to Marc, "I am sorry that Seeker Skyward upset you, please understand this is a difficult time for all of us. Skyward is under enormous pressure from the plague."

"No offense, but we all are under the same pressure, don't see me running around and harassing Souls."

Crystal Spires pursed her lips, "There are difficulties here that you do not understand. Skyward Into the Night has explained his point of view to me. There is concern among many of us that by being here you and the other humans could learn certain…things that could be used against us."

Marc raised an eyebrow but said nothing and Crystal Spires continued, "I must be wary, even if I believe your intentions are peaceful, the risk to us is too high."

"What do you want us to do?" asked Marc.

"I know I promised that while here the Seekers would not interfere with you or your people, I must modify that agreement – Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow will monitor you while you are at this facility. All humans will report to her and cooperate with any instructions she gives," explained Crystal Spires.

Marc blinked in surprise at Crystal Spires's request. He looked over to where Bright Moon stood. She didn't look entirely happy about the situation either but seemed resigned to it. Marc sighed, "My people will not take orders from you."

Bright Moon said nothing and Crystal Spires replied, "She will not ask for anything that would cause them harm." Marc still looked unconvinced and Crystal Spires considered for a moment and then added, "If she works with you and you relay the instructions, would that be acceptable?"

Bright Moon actually stiffened at the Healers request and Marc answered unhappily, "Barely, but as long as she runs her requests past me first, and I don't see harm in it, I think we can manage."

"Very good," said Crystal Spires, happy that the agreement had been made. She and Matthew exited down the hall to return to work. Scott looked at both Marc and Bright Moon with a bemused expression, "Well I've got a supply run to make, we seem to be out of nearly everything." He turned to Bright Moon and said, "That all right with you ma'am?"

She was surprised that he would address her and simply nodded in agreement. He straightened and gave her a mock salute. "Smart ass," commented Marc. Still smiling Scott turned and gave him the finger and walked off, leaving the blond haired Seeker and Marc alone.

Marc regarded Bright Moon, she had hardly said anything during the meeting and now she looked at him in an uncomfortable silence. She again looked like she wanted to say something to him but was uncharacteristically shy about it.

"What?" asked Marc.

"Nothing," she said automatically, "I'll need to know where all your people are working in the hospital." She stopped as she saw Marc shake his head.

"No…What do you want? You keep staring at me, acting like you want to say something but don't. What do you want from me?" Marc insisted.

She looked away from him, not wanting to meet his eyes, "It's not important…"

Marc's exhaustion and frustrations caught up to him and he nearly yelled, "Bright Moon on Fallen Snow, I have had maybe four hours sleep in the last two days, the plague is systematically killing my friends, and if by some miracle we cure it, your boss wants me dead. Now for the love of God, tell me what you want!"

She cringed away from his outburst and looked as if he had hit her. Suddenly she was angry, red faced and she said in a near growl, "Why! Why did you treat me so?" He could only look at her in confusion at her outburst. She calmed slight and continued, "You help us and you try to save us. You made friends with us, Healer Matthew still defends you. When you left the meeting he continued to argue with Seeker Skyward. Souls arguing, it's almost impossible to believe. And if you are to believed, you lived hidden in this city for years without harming us."

"It is true, we did live here," insisted Marc.

"Then why did you harass and torment me?"

"Well, you are a Seeker. Kinda your job to capture me, just because I am not at war with you Souls doesn't mean I will not defend myself."

"No." Bright Moon shook her head vigorously. "You did not treat the other Seekers like that, just me. Why?"

Marc looked at her for a long second, still stunned at her anger, finally he said, "You think I singled you out? You're the one started this, remember? You methodically cut off our food and supplies, you hammered us. No matter what I did you just kept coming. Hell, I think you are some type of 'Super' Seeker."

"Me? I am just a Seeker, nothing more or less. I just do my calling to the best of my abilities."

"Oh come on, you aren't like any other Seeker I've ever dealt with. You are different."

Now she was the one confused, she looked down at her hands with a frown, "I don't feel different. I did not know I was so effective…at causing you annoyance."

Marc stepped closer to her and she didn't step away, but she was still cringing away from him. "Look, if I explain how we dealt with the seekers in past, maybe you'll understand why you are different to me. Okay?"

"Okay", she replied in a subdued voice. She followed him back to the empty conference room and they sat down. Marc, paused while we considered how to explain. There was no easy way to talk about this without giving a few of their secrets away, but in all likelihood it would not make a difference now.

"Back when you guys were first taking over the city, when it became clear that the invasion of the body snatchers was real and not just some cheesy movie, there was a lot of panic. Most people tried to run, some tried to fight, and a few of us just tried to hide."

"Now you seekers concentrated on the first two and we who went into hiding had a little more time. We had time to catch our breath so to speak and tried to figure out who and what you were. We watched you, learned about how you did things. In time the Seekers turned their attention back to our many hiding spots in the city. And you took many of us…" and Marc paused in remembrance, saddened by the memory of lost friends.

"But we had learned what it meant to be taken and to have one of you inserted. We knew to be captured meant the eventual loss of our secrets, so if capture became likely we knew what had to be done," Marc made cutting motion across his throat. Bright Moon shivered at the display but said nothing. "We stayed to the tunnels and sewage ways as much as possible, we found that Souls, even Seekers, didn't like going down there."

"When seekers did come, you sent hundreds into the tunnels, a literal army. Now don't get me wrong, in large numbers you Souls can be truly terrifying. But armies have disadvantages too, they are loud and slow. And while Seekers are very methodical in the searching, that also makes you predicable."

Now for the first time Bright Moon spoke up, "You began to anticipate us, learn how to deceive us." Marc nodded with a grim smile. "It wasn't always easy, had a few close calls in the beginning. But in time the seekers came less and less. If a Soul happened to see us when we were on the surface, we would let the seekers 'find' an abandoned hiding spot with 'evidence'. Let them believe that rouge human had moved on, out of the city."

"But then I transferred to the city," said Bright Moon looking thoughtful, "and I found you down by the riverside."

"You were down there by yourself; Seekers never went down there alone. You surprised me, hell you chased me on your own, without calling for backup. Had to wonder what was different about you," noted Marc dryly.

"I was new to the city, I just was curious, I was exploring. I was not planning on finding rouge humans," explained Bright Moon.

"But you did find me, and you just kept on coming. We tried all the normal tricks, and sure maybe it would throw you off for a little while, but soon enough you'd be right back on us. So I changed strategies. Went after you instead, not a direct attack, but tried to disrupt you…made a special delivery to your apartment"

"Those…rodents…in my home, you did that" said Bright Moon with a renewed heat in her voice.

Marc smiled innocently, "Didn't like my box of rats?"

"I had to move to a new apartment. You…you stupid human."

Marc couldn't keep the laughter out of his voice, "That bought us two weeks of you off our backs, well worth it. But soon as anything, you were right back at it, hunting us relentlessly."

Bright Moon huffed and shook her head, "So…We did it to each other, didn't we?"

"What do you mean?"

"Marc, I think we are very good at annoying each other, possibly much better than we realize. There were many times when I was searching for you that I was advised to look elsewhere. To move on to new subjects, but each time I was drawn back by you. Some new trick you would play and I would be back on your trail."

"You were good at seeing through most of my tricks," mused Marc, "really kept me on my toes."

"Perhaps…no," said Bright Moon softly.

"What?"

"Just that maybe we are much alike…even if we are two different species." She pondered for a moment, "I always thought you would make a good Seeker."

Marc made a disgusted sound at her comment and she amended, "I didn't mean it like that. The word 'seeker' isn't an exact one for our calling. Perhaps 'protector' would be better, at least I think so."

"Really? Never thought of you guys that way."

"That's why I became a Seeker, to protect us. We Souls are in many ways so very fragile. Some of us must be strong to protect the others. Are you not the same, you are strong to protect your people?"

"I suppose I am…but don't call me Seeker Marc Walters…ever."

With just a hint of a smile, Bright Moon said, "I will not." She sighed and got back up. "In the future I will attempt not to annoy you as much if you promise not to annoy me."

Marc got up as well but gave her an odd look, "Talking of the future? Not only do we have the plague of the century to deal with, but the whole I'm a wild human thing. You know…monster…GRRR…ARGHH," Marc said as he hooked his hands into fake claws.

Bright Moon smiled at his ridiculous display, but then looked down sadly, "I don't think you are a monster Marc. I feel like I don't know what to make of anything anymore. I can only hope your Healer Simon and our Healers manage to cure this. After that…"

"After that, we'll have to run, not much choice," said Marc with a sigh.

Bright Moon continued to look down sadly. "I suppose so," she mumbled. She looked up again, "I still need to review your people in the hospital, shall we see if we can work together without aggravating each other?"

Marc smiled and shook his head in amusement, "Sure, why not?"

* * *

####

* * *

Simon put the petri dish into the machine labeled SCANNER. It was a simple white box with a small opening in the front and nothing else. No wires, no power cord, he really had no idea how this piece of Soul technology worked. What he did know is that it could perform a full bacterial growth factor analysis in a little more than two minutes, something that would normally take him a week to do.

As he worked Crystal Spires walked into the room. Simon looked away. He was doing his best to remember what Marc and Scott had said. He knew, at least in the rational part of his brain, that the woman he saw before him was not his wife. But on an emotional level it was so hard; he had missed her so much. And there were little things that Crystal Spires did that reminded him of Annie, the way she played with her hair or when she touched his arm. How much of it was real? He closed his eyes and slumped in his chair.

After a moment he felt a hand on his shoulder, gently rubbing the tension out of the tight muscle. He looked up and saw Crystal Spires going over some tests, her left arm moving on its own. She became aware of him watching her and then looked down at her hand, seeming unaware of what it had been doing. She pulled it away quickly and muttered, "Sorry."

In effort to give them so distance he got up and started preparing another batch of tests. She continued to watch him, almost wistfully. Simon tried a change of topic, something that had been bothering him for a while, "Is Matthew in trouble for helping us?"

Crystal Spires considered a moment before answering, "That is somewhat complicated and to be honest I'm not sure. We have really never had a situation like this before. His judgment will be called into question, but we don't have crime and punishment like humans do."

"He was only trying to help us…he didn't do anything wrong."

Crystal Spires sighed, "From your perspective, yes I can see it that way, and believe me I am sympathetic to his reasons. But we have to consider what the best is for all of us, the greater good. Many of us will not see his act as charity but assisting rebel humans."

"Do you see it like that?"

"I do not, but the majority of us will…"

Simon sighed, "Ah, the tyranny of the majority. And you'll go along with what the majority decides?"

A true look of pain crossed Crystal Spires' calm features. Simon had to resist the urge to hold her. She spoke softly, "It's so hard…to not want to be part of the group. We hardly ever have a dissenting opinion; it's usually so easy for us to see the greater good."

"You Souls always claim what you do is for the greater good. In the name of the greater good you sure have done a lot of horrible things," remarked Simon.

Crystal Spires regarded Simon for a moment and the spoke, "I am coming to see that we were wrong about Humans, but even you must admit we have improved much on this world since we acquired it."

Simon didn't immediately answer. He swapped out test dishes into the scanning device and awaited the second results. While he waited he considered an answer. Crystal Spires waited until he spoke, "It's not easy to answer. I mean, God knows we screwed up a lot. But we were trying."

"Poverty. Pollution. Starvation. All problems you humans struggled with for generations. All solved," said Crystal Spires in a mater-of-fact tone.

For a moment Simon forgot who he was talking to, "Do you remember when we met?" He then sighed, "I mean, when I met Annie."

Crystal Spires nodded, "Yes, you met in a hospital after you had been injured." She concentrated for a moment, reviewing the memories of her host. "You were returning from one of your many wars." She shuddered and said distastefully, "You had been wounded by an explosive device."

"Do you know why I was over there, in that war?"

Crystal Spires thought but looked puzzled, "No…You never spoke much about it to Annie. You seemed very angry about it."

"When that war started I volunteered to go, I believed I was doing the right thing. That country's leaders were corrupt; they starved and tortured their own people. I believed in our cause, we would help those people rebuild their country," explained Simon.

"But that's not the same thing as what we did," said Crystal Spires defensively.

"Isn't it? We went over there, stormed in, kicked their leaders out, and started to rebuild. Were the people of that country happy to see us? Most weren't, we were invaders to them. The problem was that much of the time we didn't understand the people we were claiming to save. We knew best, and their opinions didn't matter."

Crystal Spires shook her head, "That may hold true to way humans tried to improve their situation, but we resolve our issues without conflict. Ours is a better way, Simon."

"I'm just pointing out that you can do something for the greater good, but still end up being wrong," clarified Simon.

Crystal Spires looked away, looking disconcerted. "This world is deceptive, it seems simple at first, but becomes increasingly complex as you live here."

Simon couldn't help but chuckle, "Welcome to Earth, Crystal Spires, we've been dealing with that fact from the start."

She gave him a look that was exactly like Annie's when she was frustrated with him. Simon smiled and returned to his work. After a few minutes she came over to him. He looked up, still smiling, but stopped when he saw the look on her face, "What's wrong?"

She handed him a report and said, "Please confirm with your second test." Simon looked it over and then compared his data to hers. A gnawing feeling of fear began to build in Simon, "This isn't right the second sample should show no growth."

"I know," replied Crystal Spires with worry building in her voice as well, "these samples were with the latest sample of the cure. There should be no growth of the bacteria, but its surviving."

Simon's fear twisted as the realization of what the results would mean, all their hopes, gone. He looked at Crystal Spires's eyes, his pain mirrored in her silver rimmed eyes.

He whispered, "The cure, it won't work…"


	13. Despair

Sister Mary-Margret breathed in and out with slow, shallow gasps, her features now frail and ashen. Simon was by her side, examining her vitals but it was clear on his face he didn't expect her to continue for much longer. Not long after the humans had joined up with the Healers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital they had transported the old nun to the hospital. Of all of the humans who were sick, she was the worse off. Over the last few days she had only briefly been awake, her fever stubbornly coming back from dosages of COOL. Now she was nearing her end and her people had gathered around her.

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow watched all of this and wished she could be somewhere else. She didn't belong here. This was for the humans and she felt keenly out of place. But she had her orders to monitor the humans and she was following those orders to the best of her ability. She tried to keep out of their way. There was nothing she could say or do to help, so she simply pressed herself against one side of the room and waited with everyone else.

She contemplated the idea of only having one life to live. She was on her fourth life term, and although she was still relatively new to this body, she still was many years older than Mary-Margret. Yet she had felt like a youngling when talking to the nun before. The old human had possessed a quiet self-assurance and harmony that Bright Moon would never have expected to see in a human. She still didn't understand exactly the role she played in the humans' community. Her host memories only faintly understood the role of a nun. What she knew didn't seem to fit what she had seen.

But it no longer mattered; Sister Mary-Margret was dying. _'We all are dying,'_ thought Bright Moon grimly. The Healers hope for medical cure had failed. The infection rolled on, unstoppable and unrelenting, the death toll rising to levels Bright Moon did not even try to comprehend. Now, in a last ditch effort to save the sick, Souls were being removed from their host bodies and transferred to cryotanks for storage. With the hope that at some point in the future they could be cured. However, they had limited resources to carry this task out and they had no such devices to preserve the human host bodies. Bright Moon had seen the projections, in a few more days the city of Chicago would be completely decimated.

The big human Dell now bowed his head and leaned down so he was only a few inches above the frail woman. She had been doing this with each person in the room for the last few minutes; her final words. Her mouth moved slowly and Dell nodded slowly to words only he could hear. After a minute he straightened back up, several big tears rolling down his face. Mary-Margret made a faint motion with her hands and Dell lowered himself back down. After just a moment he frowned, but then shrugged and straighten back up. He said hoarsely, "Seeker, she would like to talk to you."

It took Bright Moon a moment to understand the he was talking to her. She looked back at Dell in confusion. Surely he must be wrong, why would she want to talk to her? Marc also bent down and listened to the nun; he looked up at her and nodded in confirmation. When she still hesitated he said solemnly, "Please Bright Moon, she is asking for you."

She slowly walked from the far side of the room to the side of the bed. The humans moved out of her way. She wondered if they were angry that she was being called to hear from Mary-Margret, but their faces were only filled with grief. There was no hatred in their eyes. She kneeled down next to the dying human and bent as close as she could to hear her.

"Hello Seeker," murmured Mary-Margret.

Bright Moon could only nod in acknowledgement.

"I will be gone soon…my work is not done on this world…but it appears my time is…" came her voice in dry rasping gasps. After a moment she continued, "I never asked anything from someone…I did not think they…could do. I have…one request of you…"

Bright Moon felt herself bob her head once, but felt very numb.

"…Do not hurt my people…" came the words in a single gasp.

She blinked in surprise and she frowned slightly at the nun.

"Please…" the word came in desperate whisper, "…show them mercy."

Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow looked down at the nun. For a long moment Bright Moon did not say or do anything as she deliberated. She asked for the impossible, but did it even matter? Were they not all dead already, if not by the Seekers, then by the disease? So what if she agreed or not to the request when the outcome would be the same? But in the end she realized all that mattered is what she said now. Slowly Bright Moon said in near whisper, "Yes Sister Mary-Margret…I promise…No harm will come to them."

She slowly stood back up, feeling unsteady in her body. She looked back at Marc and Dell and realized they had not heard any of Mary-Margret's words. She wondered if she should tell them, but deep down she knew the words were meant only for her. She looked down and could see a small smile on the dry and cracked lips of the failing human. Marc looked at her, she could tell he was wondering what had been said, but it was not for her to say. She moved back to the far wall and went back to waiting with the rest of the humans.

They would not have to wait long.

* * *

####

* * *

Healer Darren was sitting in a chair in the lobby of the hospital. No more sick were coming into the hospital now, the lobby was deserted. He felt…numb…that was the only word that he could come up with. They had tried…tried so very hard…but in the end they had failed. Even with the human's medical treatment, the illness was winning. Outside the doors to the hospital hundreds of Souls lay dying. The few available healers were out there trying to extract their brethren from their host bodies. Elsewhere in the city, other healing facilities were doing the same, but there simply were too many and not enough time.

Now many Souls were in mourning…some curled their bodies in tight balls and remained motionless and silent…others wept…and still others were like Darrin – just numb. He sat and looked out at the rising sun. He could feel the dryness in his throat, and slowly building ache in his body. He knew soon he would start to show symptoms of the disease. There seemed little to do but wait.

Kate sluggishly came into the lobby and made her way over to Darren. She slumped down next to him. Her eyes were very red and her face was tear-streaked. She looked into his eyes, her green to his silver. "She's gone," she said in a shaky whisper.

Darren didn't need to ask who Kate was talking about. Darren had known about the old human woman who had been brought in. He had seen when the human Scott had come to Kate and told her about her worsening condition. Up till then Kate had continued on, driven by some unknown strength to continue helping. But when she had received the news, something was turned off in her like a light switch. All her strength was gone. Perhaps until then Kate still clung to the idea that the plague was beatable, that it could be conquered by sheer will power. Darren had marveled at her strength. But everyone had their limits.

"I'm so tired…I could sleep a year," said Kate looking down at her hands.

"I know…I feel like crawling into a cryotank and sleeping a century," replied Darren. It was not an exaggeration. He meant it.

Kate looked up again, "What is it like? In a cryotank I mean."

"We feel nothing, no thoughts, and no dreams. We wake up centuries later in a new body."

"I really wish I could do that…to not have to feel anything…for a long long time," said Kate dreamily.

"Hmmm…we would need a big cryotank for you…big bulky human."

"Hey…I think you just made another joke," said Kate and then she glowered," and I think you called me fat."

"Sorry"

"Don't be. I could use the humor, not a lot to laugh at."

A new voice rang out, startling both of them, "Help. Please, I need help."

Darren wearily got to his feet and Kate did the same. He made his way out to the entrance of the hospital and looked around. At the door was a young man, a Soul. He looked very worried. "Oh…thank you. I was worried no one was here. Please my partner needs help."

Darren sighed, "It would be best if she went to tents outside, they can treat her there."

The young Soul looked confused and still a bit panicky, "No, she is not sick…she is in labor."

Kate and Darren both looked at each other. The realization there would be a medical emergency from something other than the plague took a moment to sink in. Darren was the first to react, "Yes, please bring her in." The young man dashed back out the door to retrieve his partner. Moments later he came back assisting a young woman. She was a small woman, only a little bigger than Kate, with dark curly hair, and she was very pregnant. She was gripping her mid-section as her partner helped her into the lobby.

Darren looked back to Kate, his eyes wide, "I've never delivered a baby before…what do we do?"

Kate's eyes were just as large as Darren's, "How should I know? I've never delivered a baby either."

"You are a female human. Don't you instinctively know what to do?"

Kate scowled at Darren so strongly he shrank back a bit. She just shook her head in disbelief and said in an incredulous voice, "Men."

* * *

####

* * *

Simon peered through the microscope looking at his sample. He worked the controls until it resolved his quarry. He was looking at the small bacterium that was causing such devastation. It was a variation of the bacteria that normally caused meningitis, but a strain like none he had ever seen. It was both incredibly simple and amazingly complex. For the bacteria was simple enough that it could rapidly spread in the body once you were infected, yet it was complex enough to successfully hide itself from the Soul's medical technology.

As much as he was amazed by the Soul's technology in the hospital, he had reverted to some plain old human technology – the microscope – and had continued to work towards a cure. He picked up a pen to write some notes and had to concentrate as his hands were constantly shaking. Slowly he wrote out his findings and then turned back to the microscope. He looked again and spoke in a harsh whisper, "You are not beating me."

Crystal Spires finished her conversation she was having over the phone with a Healer at another hospital. She hung up the phone and asked, "Simon, did you say something?"

Simon looked up from his equipment and stared at her glassy eyed, "No, nothing…just talking to myself."

She looked him over, "You should get some rest…Others are taking some time to…mourn." She had not known Sister Mary-Margret but had seen the other humans react to her death; they were deeply saddened from her passing. Yet Simon had returned and thrown himself back into finding a cure. She looked down at the counter near Simon and saw an empty bottle of AWAKE. She said with concern in her voice, "Simon, how much AWAKE have you taken?"

"I don't know…a couple doses here and there…"

She touched him on his arm and could feel a slight tremor run through him. "Simon, the human body can only go so long without rest…the AWAKE is only to be used in small doses. It is not wise for continual use."

"I'm fine…I just need to keep working…there is still time to find a cure that will work."

Crystal Spire hesitated for a few seconds but then surprised Simon by pulling him up and wrapping her arms around him. He stiffened for a moment, but then relaxed and pulled her closer to him. For a time they just stood together in silence.

After a time, Crystal Spires took a deep breath and let it out, "Simon, you have done so much, you tried so hard. Please rest now. Others, many others, are working towards a cure."

She could feel him still trembling slight in her grip and he whispered back to her hoarsely, "And how many of your healers know about antibiotics? I've been the only one able to even put a dent into this infection. We are running out of time"

She had buried her face in his chest and he could feel her smile. "We are not ignorant of these things. We know how your medicines worked. You were just the first to find a treatment…we shall always be grateful for your help…for all of you that helped. But you have done enough…"

"We are so close. I know it…I can feel it. If only I was faster…" She now felt him shake harder and not from too much AWAKE. She looked up to him and saw his eyes were tightly closed, trying to keep the tears from falling. He whispered, "I could have saved her…I could have saved so many…"

She clung to him as tears began to run down her face as well. Their losses were so great that she feared if she stopped to think about it that the sheer enormity of it would destroy her. There were so many Souls already dead. What was the death of one human in comparison? But there were so few of them. She had counted only thirty or so humans when she had visited their hideout. Even one death would be a huge blow to them. Crystal Spires now found herself weeping for one old human she had never known. In some strange way it was easier to grieve for one Human, than for thousands of her own kind.

She reached up to his face with her hands and dried away his tears. He looked down at her as well, his hand coming up to gently wipe away a few of her tears. He suddenly froze, his hands going slack at his sides.

Simon's face had gone white. "What? What is wrong?" she asked in alarm.

"Yo…Your nose," said Simon shakily, "You're bleeding."

Crystal Spires reached up and touched her nose with her fingers. They came away with droplets of blood on them. She could feel a trickle going down her face. A growing pounding was already starting in her head.

"Oh no…"

* * *

####

* * *

Marc Walters stared blankly out the window as the sun was rising. He was sitting down in a waiting room just outside Mary-Margret's room. _Had_ been her room, he corrected himself. He had not cried, or wailed like some. He didn't feel numb, in shock, or even that tired. Mary-Margret had died, taken like so many others. In his twenty five years of life Marc had lost many people. He wasn't sure he could really grieve anymore. Of all the emotions he could feel, he just felt…resigned. Resigned to their fate. That for Marc and his little band of humans' time had run out. For all of their fighting, struggling, stubbornly trying to stay alive, fate had decreed it was over. No arguments. No appeals.

As he sat there continuing to look out the window Bright Moon on Fallen Snow sat down beside him. He glanced over to her and could tell she was watching the morning sun as well. She watched it in silence and he didn't want to interrupt her. He turned back to the sun rise and his own thought. For a long time they both sat like this, a silent peace between them that now seemed to be quite natural.

After the sun had pulled itself up from eastern horizon, Bright Moon asked softly, "Marc, what will you do now?"

"I guess…send my people back home. Let them be with friends and family till the end," said Marc after he thought about it for a minute.

"Will you go as well?"

He now turned and looked at her, really looked at her. He remembered his conversation he had with Mia in the tunnels about Seeker Bright Moon. Now it seemed like that conversation had taken place decades ago. Bright Moon, at least her human body, was pretty. Not like a model's, not a superficial beauty with a perfectly formed face, just a simple beauty. Her eyes, the blue that ringed silver, no longer looked at him hostility or fear. They were peaceful as she watched him and for the first time he realized how they were both attractive and exotic. He wondered what Bright Moon, the alien Soul, actually looked like. He had never really seen the little aliens up close before.

"What?" asked Bright Moon. Marc realized he had been gazing at her for a while and she had become a little self-conscious. He actually believed he saw her blush slightly.

"Ummm…sorry, just was considering the oddity of you and I sitting here like this," explained Marc.

She nodded in agreement, "Yes, it is very strange. I was just thinking about how just a week ago, I was tied up and you were stealing my car. That seems so long ago."

He gave her a wry smile, "I was thinking basically the same thing. Maybe you are right, we are a lot alike. By the way, sorry about the whole stealing your car thing."

"You are apologizing to me?" she looked faintly shocked.

"Well…it was explained to me that while I might have considered it a joke, Souls wouldn't see it that way."

Bright Moon tilted her head and asked in a perplex voice, "Who told you that?"

"Oh it was…" and Marc trailed off. Partly because he realized Bright Moon would learn about Autumn Gusting Wind. He had already outed Healer Matthew as a human sympathizer. He felt terrible that he had done that. He would not reveal any other Souls that helped him. He would take that information to his grave…which in all likelihood wouldn't be far off.

But he also realized he had not heard from Auntie during this entire time. They had been so busy, he had forgotten all about their plans with her. Suddenly he felt a knot of fear form in his stomach. He got up quickly and headed down the hall.

Bright Moon jumped up and followed quickly behind him. "Marc, where are you going?"

"It's nothing, just something I need to do. Alone."

She gave him a suspicious look, "Why? What are you doing?"

"I…", he ground his teeth in frustration, "Bright Moon, please, for once can you just trust me. I need to do something and I need to do it without you breathing down my neck."

"I can't just let you go. Not with at least understanding what you are doing."

Marc sighed, "I need to check on someone. With everything going on I lost track. Please, Bright Moon, it is really important."

"Who? Your people are either here or back at your base. Who else…" she trailed off in thought. Her features sharpened with realization of Marc meaning. She was silent for a minute, "There are other sympathizers, more than just Matthew. Aren't there?"

"At this point does it matter?"

He could see the conflict in her face, the uncertainty. Finally Bright Moon sighed, "I suppose not."

"Thank you, Bright Moon...really thank you."

She didn't look very happy, but gave him a faint nod. He continued down the hallway by himself and then turned the corner. There were a number of Soul Healers here, some of them resting, but others were sick themselves. The few Healers that did noticed him, paid little attention to him. He reached a nurse station and picked up a phone.

He dialed Autumn Gusting Wind home phone number and no one answered the phone. The gnawing fear in his stomach only increased. He then tried a voicemail service that Eric had setup a long time ago. Eric claimed messages would be untraceable, but Marc had always been reluctant to use it. Now he hoped that Autumn would remember it and would have used it to leave him a message. After a minute the service began to play a message. Marc listened with growing panic.

Bright Moon was still in the hallway where he left her, but she was talking with one of the Healers. He slowed down as he approached her. The middle aged Healer was speaking to her and Bright Moon had gone very still and pale. After the Healer left he came up to her, she was still pale and her eyes were closed.

For a moment Marc forgot his own worries and asked, "Everything okay?"

She opened her eyes and he could see that she was near tears. "No," she whispered, "Calm Waters Below is near death. The Healers are trying to get more cryotanks here, but they don't think they will be able in time."

"I'm sorry," said Marc quietly and found he was only faintly surprised that he meant it. He hesitated, but saw no other choice. "I need help finding someone…a Soul named Autumn Gusting Wind."

She regarded him silently, her own pain mixed with exhaustion. "I'm not sure I can help much. Where did she live?" He told her and she made a call on her cell phone. Within a few minutes she had a return call and she listened to it while watching him the entire time. After she hung up, she sighed deeply and told him, "Come with me.

* * *

####

* * *

In fact they had the same destination to go to for both Calm Waters Below and Autumn Gusting Wind. A park a few blocks from the hospital had been converted to an emergency center. It was not coincidence that both Souls ended up here. The site had become the infirmary for deathly ill, for the most critical cases.

As they approached the group of large tents that made of the emergency center, Bright Moon stopped Marc and said, "Marc, there are activities going on in there…"

"Like removing a Soul from a live host?" he said mildly. She looked at him sharply and he simply shrugged, "You aren't that great of a liar, Bright Moon. When you told us before that a Soul could only be removed after the death of the host, it was pretty convincing lie, but not that convincing.

The Seeker closed her eyes, worry and weariness filling her features. She opened her eyes and gazed coolly at him, "Can you blame us? If you were to learn how to remove us and to recover the human host, we would be completely vulnerable. It is our most closely guarded secret."

Marc said as plainly as he could, "I don't care about any of that. I just want to see Autumn. I'll close my eyes, cover my ears, whatever you want."

Bright Moon relented and they continued on. "I suppose it will not matter, they do not have any cryotanks available. They will not be performing any extractions." She looked dejectedly at the ground and said with misery in her voice, "If they don't get more cryotanks soon, all the Souls at this site will die."

"Can't they…just pull you out? Do you really need the cryotanks?"

"We can't survive out of a host body for very long. All the Souls here are very sick; they would likely not even survive reinsertion to another host."

Marc felt the fear in his stomach jump as he heard Bright Moon's words. He let out a shaky breath, "Okay, do you know where to find her?"

She nodded and she led him past dozens of rows of cots. Each row had at least forty cots, and every cot had a Soul. Most of them looked like they were dead already, the bodies a pale gray color. Here and there he heard thin raspy coughs. Marc did a quick estimate as they moved through the tent there were easily three hundred bodies here.

At last they came to stop and Marc quickly recognized Autumn Gusting Wind's body. Her curly red hair was limp and sweat soaked, her face very pale, but he could see she was still alive. She breathed in and out slowly. Marc kneeled down beside her and took her hand.

After a moment she stirred and opened her eyes. It took her a few moments to focus on Marc. When she recognized him she smiled faintly, "Oh…Hello…my little stray."

Marc murmured softly, "Hi Auntie, I'm so sorry I didn't come sooner."

"It's alright…You have plenty to worry about…besides me," she said in a raspy voice

Marc put her hand to his cheek and brushed some of sweaty hair out of Autumn's face. She was very warm to the touch and the silver in her eyes seemed to have faded to mere flicker. "No, I always make time for you…" said Marc in a quivery voice.

Autumn Gusting Wind shifted on the cot and focused on her surroundings. She seemed a bit confused and then focused on Bright Moon on Fallen Snow who stood behind Marc.

"Oh, Seeker, I'm sorry…I know I was supposed to report wild humans…but he was so cold and hungry…"

"Shhh," cooed Marc, "Nothing to worry about."

But Autumn continued, still recalling her memory, "I feed him dinner…I…I don't know who was more afraid of who." She laughed slightly and then began to shake as a series of coughs racked her body. Marc protectively held her until they subsided.

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow watched all of this, in a near daze. She bent down and said softly, "It is alright Autumn Gusting Wind, you did nothing wrong." She turned to Marc and said, "I need to go." Marc understood and nodded wordlessly to Bright Moon. She rose slowly and left Marc and Autumn behind. She had to find Calm Waters Below.

She found him down another row and across the way from Marc. He looked much as he did the last time she had seen him. He had been one of earliest to get Simon's treatment, and had started to improve. But the treatment wasn't a permanent cure, and Bright Moon hated herself for losing track of how he was doing. He was a close friend, and she had forgotten about him.

Mimicking Marc's movements, she sat down beside him and took his hand. He seemed to be only sleeping, but he did not respond when she lightly shook him. For a long second she was afraid she was too late, but she saw his chest rise very faintly. She bent down and whispered, "Please, my friend wake up."

Faintly he groaned and finally he eyes flickered opened. He looked up at her and smiled faintly, "You…came."

"I am sorry for…"

"No," he said interrupting her, "Please...I have little time. I've wanted to say something to you for a long time."

He gathered what small amount of strength he had left and began, "Bright Moon on Fallen Snow…you are the most beautiful Souls…I have ever met. You are…smart…and brave. I always wanted to ask you…to…see…if you wanted…to be my partner."

Wide eyed she looked at Calm Waters Below. She had never guessed that he was interested in her in that way. She didn't know what to say. He continued, but his voice was growing faint, "To be with you…from life to the next…always journeying together…it would be my greatest…privilege." His last words came out as a long sigh. His mouth jerked slight and then he was still. It took her a long time to realize he was dead. And even after she did, she could not let go of his hand.

Marc held Autumn Gusting Wind, slowly stroking her face, trying his best to wipe the sweat away. He dimly realized that he was babbling, telling Autumn that everything was going to be okay, that she would get better and she would be back to baking cookies in no time. She did little more than squeeze his hand occasionally.

Finally she spoke up, "Marc…thank you."

"For what?" his voice thick with emotion.

"For you being you…for everything you ever did for me."

Tears began to distort Marc's vision as he gazed down at her. "I never did…"

"Yes you did. In all my lives…I found my greatest happiness with a lost little human…"

She smiled up at him one last time and breathed out her last. He continued to hold her for a long while. Finally he let go of her and his mouth moved in silent words, "Goodbye…mother."

He slowly stood up and looked around. The entire area was silent, completely silent, no one on the cots moved at all. As he turned he saw Bright Moon on Fallen Snow. She was standing looking, but not seeing. He slowly made his way to her. She finally seemed to grasp that he was there in front of her and she slowly reached out for him. He pulled her into tight embrace, and then each one finally breaking down into sobs. They clutched each other as their bodies no longer had strength to support them. Their cries the only sound to be heard.

Just two souls, in a field of death.


	14. Miracle

Kate ran down the hallway and then skidded to a stop in front of the small treatment room in the emergency wing of the hospital. Only a thin curtain separated the treatment room from the hallway. Behind the curtain there was a deep moan of pain and then low voices offering encouragement. Kate let out a breath and pushed the curtain aside. Inside a young woman was in the throes of labor. The woman's dark hair was thick with sweat and lay plastered against her face and her hands were in tight fists as she endured the contraction. She let out a deep breath slowly and then opened her eyes, she saw Kate almost immediately and let out a low whimper.

Healer Darren who was examining her vitals stopped and gave Kate a pleading look with his silver rimmed eyes that boarded on desperation. Kate could only shake her head, "There is some type of problem upstairs, they said would send a healer as soon as they could, but not to expect anyone too soon."

Darren shoulders slumped, some from frustration and a good deal of it from exhaustion. He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Kate simply shrugged, "Guess I'm it, until they send someone."

This brought a renewed whimper from the bed. Darren reached over to the woman's hand and held it, "Blue Waves Dancing, please don't fear Kate. She will not harm you. She is here to help." Kate tried to give her best "I'm a nice human" smile, but she didn't have much energy to it. The pregnant Soul had been fearful of Kate since she had arrived. Combined with her giving birth in the middle of a deadly epidemic, she was greatly stressed. Not helpful when she was trying to give birth to her baby. Kate had tried to stay out of the way to help Blue Waves Dancing relax, but that was becoming increasing impossible.

Her partner, Many Eyes Seeing, glanced fretfully between Blue Waves Dancing and Kate. He was holding Blue Waves other hand and trying to keep her calm. He took a damp cloth and gently patted her face, all the while offering reassurances. "Won't be long now, just a little more, remember your breathing."

"I…feel a great pressure…to push…" groaned out Blue Waves. Darren pulled himself away from her bedside and returned to the foot of bed. Kate joined him as he examined her, "I think that is a good thing, the urge to bare down."

Darren nodded and whispered, "She is full dilated, but nothing is happening…I'm not sure what is wrong."

"Sorry…wish I knew more. When Alexis was born, she popped out so fast Sarah did it almost all on her own."

The healer continued his examination and stopped suddenly, "I think I know what is wrong. The baby is not coming out head first. That is not normal?"

Kate understood in flash what that meant, "Yeah, pretty sure that is wrong. I think it's called a breech birth."

"How is it corrected?"

Kate paled slightly, "I think when it happens they do a C-section. You know, cut the baby out…"

Darren grimaced and then sighed, "Humans have such a complicated birthing process."

Kate deadpanned, "Well, on behalf of all females of my species, I'm so sorry we can't all deliver on demand."

* * *

#####

* * *

The mid-morning sun shone down brightly on Northwestern Memorial Hospital as Marc Walters and Bright Moon on Fallen Snow returned to the hospital. They had returned in complete silence, both physically and emotionally drained. When they had left the critical care tent, there were no signs of any life. As they walked back, Marc dully realized how quiet it was in the city. _'A sign of things to come,'_ he thought darkly. He glanced over at Bright Moon, the Seeker looked completely exhausted and only partial aware of her surroundings.

He didn't know Bright Moon's relationship with the Seeker that died, he assumed they were friends, but perhaps they were more than that. He didn't want to intrude by asking her about the details, but he continued to think about it. For no more reason than to keep his mind off the death of Autumn, his mind instinctively pushing away from the pain of his loss so he could continue functioning. He wondered if Bright Moon would be able to do that. Souls, he found, seemed so effected by human emotions, they all wore their hearts on their sleeves. Perhaps as a Seeker she would not respond in the same way.

As they neared the entrance to the hospital, Bright Moon wavered for a moment and then nearly stumbled, Marc caught her before she completely collapsed. She shook herself and tried to focus on him, her eyes were glassy as she stared at him. "I'm fine," she mumbled.

Realizing it could be more than just fatigue affecting her, Marc reached up and held his hand to her forehead. "Bright Moon, you are burning up." Even as he said it, her legs failed her and she crumpled against him. He scooped her up and began carrying her the remaining way to the hospital.

He was lucky they were nearly to the entrance, his own strength was ebbing. He knew he didn't have a fever, but he had an odd dryness in his throat. At this point, he guessed, it was hard to say what was from exhaustion and what was from the plague. He made it through the doors and into the emergency center where he sat Bright Moon down on an empty bed. With what strength he had, he pushed himself into a nearby chair.

Bright Moon blinked a few times and looked around. "Wha…What happened?" she asked softly.

"You passed out. You're pushing a fever too; looks like you are starting to get sick."

She blinked, but seemed accepting to this fate already. "How did I get here?"

"Simple, I carried you here."

She lay back in the bed and stared up at the ceiling for several moments, "Now you are being nice to me…"

Marc leaned back wearily in the chair, "Well, you aren't trying to kill me. That tends to make me a much nicer person."

"I see," replied the Seeker. Her voice had taken on a faraway tone, she continued talking but Marc had a feeling she was becoming delirious, "Maybe we should have been nice to you too…then we wouldn't need to fight…that would be good…" She drifted off for a while and Marc laid his head back and closed his eyes to rest.

The emergency wing of the hospital was empty, but he did hear some commotion from down the hall. He briefly considered investigating, but for now, he was simply too tired. He wasn't sure how much time had passed when he heard her again, her voice faint and a bit raspy, "Marc…"

"Yeah?"

"I'm scared."

Marc opened his eyes and looked over to Bright Moon. She was looking at him now, her face very calm, but her silver eyes troubled.

"I always told myself I wouldn't fear my final death. But in the end I still…fear it."

Marc could think of no words to give comfort, so he reached out and took Bright Moon on Fallen Snow's hand and held it. He gave it a gentle squeeze, and she returned it. And for now it was enough.

* * *

####

* * *

"Annie, do you remember when we went to Cozumel…" said Simon as he dropped another sample into the SCANNER device and then jumped over to another station where he was mixing two chemicals together. "…and we went to that restaurant on the beach? That waiter who messed up our orders?"

He looked down at Annie, or more specifically Crystal Spires. She was resting on two chairs he had propped together to make a makeshift bed. Her eyes here closed and she still breathed normally, but there was still a trickle of blood from her nose. Simon bent down and felt her pulse; it was steady…more or less. He glanced up to the clock in the room. Nearly an hour had passed since Crystal Spires had started showing signs of the accelerated illness. He had given her the largest dose of the antibiotic he figured her body could withstand. It had bought him time, but not much.

"It's funny, right now, with everything going on, that stupid waiter keeps popping up in my head. I mean, actually my mind is going a mile a minute…too much of that AWAKE." Simon sighed and shook his head. This caused a sudden vertigo and he had to stop and hold on to the bench with both hands. He looked back at Crystal Spires, "You warned me about taking too much of that stuff."

The SCANNER beeped and Simon dashed over to measure the results. He looked it over and blew out a held breath. "Okay…that's promising," he said smiling.

He hunted around the table till he found what he was looking for, a small computer that catalog all the Soul's medical supplies. As he began looking through the computer's inventory he continued speaking out loud, "Where was I…right, the waiter. See I remembered how I was angry…but you just laughed. You could always see the best in any situation…" A few stray tears rolled down Simon's face.

There was knocking on the door to the lab. Simon wiped away his tears and looked to the door. He saw through the small window of the door that Healer Matthew was back, this time with several other Souls. When Matthew saw he had Simon's attention he said, "Simon, please, let us in. Let us help Crystal Spires." His voice muffled by the door.

Simon walked over to the door. He had locked it and pushed a large cabinet in front of door the first time Matthew had tried to get in. From what Simon could see through the small window, Matthew now had five other large men with him. A quick look at his hastily created barricade and Simon knew they would be in lab in minutes.

"Matthew, like I told you before…either this works or it doesn't. If it doesn't then nothing matters…" said Simon stoically.

"Please…we can still save Crystal Spires. Let us get her to a Cryotank," insisted Matthew.

"Sorry…I'm almost done here." He walked back to computer and continued his search until he found his needed ingredient. The computer indicated the required drawer it was in and Simon retrieved a small bottle labeled INSIDE HEAL. Now he began mixing his chemical concoction with the INSIDE HEAL. He measured out a small dose. There was a loud band and he glanced over to door. Matthew and the others were beginning to work on taking down the door.

His hands were still shaking, nervous sweat rolled down his face, fear twisted in his gut. He picked up the bottle and walked over to where Crystal Spires the Soul and Annie his wife lay dying. This had to work…it just had to. If it didn't…there would be no second tries. He pressed the bottle up against her face and pressed the trigger.

* * *

####

* * *

"Okay, I need another strong push, Blue Waves Dancing," instructed Darren.

The small woman gritted her teeth and clamped her jaw tight as she forced her body to push again. Her hold body tensed as she pushed and until her face had gone nearly white. Sweat poured down her face. With a final gasping grunt she fell back her jaw loosing and a thin wail escaped her.

Kate brought a clean towel to young woman and tried to wipe some of perspiration away. When it became clear that no other Healer would be coming in time, Darren and Kate had continued on the best they could. Neither one of them knew how to do a C-section, so as Kate put it, they would do it the old fashion way. Kate knew ta breech birth had a number of possible complications, but they had little choice.

While she worked and monitored Blue Waves Dancing's vitals, Darren examined the progress from at the end of bed. Many Eyes Seeing had little else to do then to hold his partner's hand and offer encouragement. Darren looked up, "Another one, please."

"I…Can't…" groaned Blue Waves.

"Please, you must," said Darren gently.

"I…This body can't do it…" cried Blue Waves.

"Please try again my little wave," prompted Many Eyes.

Blue Waves only response was a long wail of "Noooo…"

Something deep in Kate snapped. Lack of sleep and constant stress for unending hours had stripped her raw. Now the complaints, no matter how justified, from Blue Waves Dancing cut into her and any restraint she had in dealing with the Souls was gone. Without her even being aware she was doing it, she slapped Blue Waves in face. Hard.

Everything in the little room came to a sudden and dramatic stop. Many Eyes Seeing paled and cowered back from her. Darren was standing in a heartbeat his mouth wide in shock at what Kate had done. And Blue Waves Dancing, her face already with a brightening red mark, let out a terrified squeal as Kate glared down at her.

"Now you listen to me!" yelled Kate. Her emotions seesawing between anger and panic at what she had just done. "Your baby needs you...You will do this!"

Whether it was Kate's anger or Kate's mention of her baby, the frightened Soul gave a small nod of her head. Kate seized on her agreement and spoke sternly, "Now when I say push…You push."

Again a small nod and Kate looked back to Darren. He was still standing looking in astonishment at Kate. Kate glared at him and he gulped, but he immediately returned to his station. It was all the prompting Kate needed. She took Blue Waves' hand and commanded, "Now push…"

The small Soul woman took a deep breath and bore down. Kate could feel every muscle in the woman's body tense and quiver as she worked to push her baby out. Blue Waves face began to turn purple and then she let out a huge gasp. Her body relaxed and she sucked in fresh air. Kate realized she too had been hold her own breath and let it out.

Darren popped up and he spoke with excitement, "It's working. I have a grip on the infant…Just one more time."

Kate looked Blue Waves Dancing in the eye and spoke with gentle confidence, "You can do this." The smallest of smiles played on the pregnant Soul's face. She took a deep breath and began to tense. Darren disappeared behind the sheets as he worked on pulling the baby. Blue Waves pushed with all she had. A long moan escaped her and suddenly there was a new voice accompanying her cry. With a sob she relaxed back into the bed as Darren pulled the baby clear.

The tiny infant let out loud cries and Darren was working quickly on cutting the umbilical cord and began checking on the newborn. Kate came up to him and began helping to clean the baby up. With a small nod, he handed the baby to her and returned to Blue Waves to finish with the afterbirth.

Kate worked quickly and wrapped the baby in a fresh sheet. She looked back and both parents regarded her and their child in awe. She mustered the best smile she could and said, "It's a little girl." A happy cry came from both Souls and she handed the mother her newborn daughter. As she took her daughter for the first time, tears of relief, happiness, and exhaustion ran down Blue Waves Dancing's face. She looked up at Kate and whispered, "Thank you…" over and over.

* * *

####

* * *

The door fame rattled as Matthew and the other Souls worked on the lab door. Simon paid no attention to them. He sat next to Crystal Spires and held her hand. She breathed in and out slowly. He had given her a dose of medicine over a minute ago. There had been no change so far and Simon considered trying one more dose.

Crystal Spires took a deep breath and then made a small waking sound. She slowly opened her eyes.

Simon dared not breathe. She blinked a few time and focused on him. "How…How do you feel?" he asked.

Crystal Spires straighten and rubbed her head. "Tired…Really thirsty."

Simon got her a glass of water from the sink and she drank it down quickly. A confused looked formed on her gentle features of her face. "Simon, what happened? I remember bleeding from my nose and my head hurt so much."

"And now?" prompted Simon.

"The pain is gone. Did you use NO PAIN on me?"

Simon shook his head slowly once. Crystal Spires sat still for a long moment and then asked in a small voice, "Did you cure me?"

In an equally quiet voice he answered, "Yes, I did." They both gazed at each other in silence as the significance sunk slowly sunk into them. The quiet in the room broken as the door made a loud cracking sound and area around the door handle suddenly splintered.

Crystal Spires' confusion grew as she looked at the door. Another bang and the door was pulled aside. Matthew appeared in the doorway and began pushing the cabinet out of the way when he saw Crystal Spires standing up, alive and well. He stopped and said rather foolishly, "Healer, you are healed."

Simon was slowly backing up against the sink as Matthew and the other Healers pushed their way into the lab. Crystal Spires was slowly examining herself. The others looked her over in amazement.

"Yes, Matthew, I believe I am." She looked over to Simon and smiled warmly, "Simon you did it."

Simon was now against the sink and just gave a small nod of his head. He took a deep breath. He felt very still and his hands no longer shook. He picked up the small bottle that contained the long sought cure.

Matthew smiled broadly and sighed in relief, "We will need to know what supplies are required so we can begin mass production of the cure."

"No."

Crystal Spires, Matthew, and the other healers looked blankly at Simon, uncomprehending. Matthew blinked, "What?"

"I said no", explained Simon. He held up the bottle with the cure in one hand and with his other he pulled a small white pill from his pocket. The Souls in the room took a step towards him and he said loudly "Stop."

"But Simon," said Crystal Spires, "What do you mean?"

Simon indicated in his right hand the bottle, "This is the cure." Then he held it over the sink and began to tip it over. All the Souls cried out at once, "NO!"

He stopped and tapped his forehead with his left hand, still holding the white pill, "And how to make the cure is in this little human brain. I've got a little cyanide capsule here. Now all I need to do is drop this bottle down the sink and swallow this pill, and you have nothing."

Crystal Spires nearly burst into tears, "But why? Simon, please, don't do this."

Simon smiled sadly at Crystal Spires, "I'm sorry, but we need to make a new deal. I know I promised to help, but what can I say, I'm only human."

Crystal Spires drew silent and looked withdrawn, "What do you want, Simon?"

"I want my wife back. I want Annie. I don't know the specifics, but I know there is a way to remove you without the death of the host body." He saw her Crystal Spires eyes widen in surprise. "I am really sorry Crystal Spires. It is nothing personal. But she belongs with me, not you. All I want is her and you can have your cure."

"I thought you…and me," said Crystal Spires but she trailed off. Long seconds ticked by and Crystal Spires was silent, finally she took a deep breath and asked, "This is all you ask for?"

"Yes," said Simon barely above a whisper.

"It has been a long time since I was joined with her, years. Simon, she may not come back to you."

Simon gave a long, shaky, sigh, "If she does not, then I will mourn her and move on. But I can't continue knowing she is like this."

A tear worked down Crystal Spires' face, "I am sorry Simon. I never meant to hurt you." She looked immensely sad. She turned to Matthew who had watched all this dumbstruck, "Healer Matthew, can a Cryotank be found for me?"

"But…Healer," stammered Matthew.

Crystal Spires smiled sadly, "This human has a cure that will save countless lives. For the greater good I will grant his wish." She addressed Simon, "You will understand we can't carry out the extraction in front of you. I will go to a nearby room and Matthew will perform the procedure. It will not take long."

Simon simply nodded. The Soul that was Crystal Spires turned and began to walk out of the room. She stopped at looked back at Simon one last time, "Goodbye Simon, I hope you have a good life."

* * *

####

* * *

From somewhere nearby there came the cry of a baby. Marc slowly opened his eyes. He realized he had dozed off for some time. He looked around and saw he still held Bright Moon's hand. She still slept in the bed he had put her in. The Seeker breathed in and out slowly with a faint but consistent laboring, an early sign of the disease starting to take over. Marc looked around and then placed Bright Moon's hand on the bed. He watched her for a few moments and then gently touched her face and smiled faintly, "Bye Bri…"

He walked down the hall looking for source of the crying which had woken him. He had not traveled far before he ran into Kate and a gray-haired Soul. They both were sitting on the floor outside a small treatment room talking quietly, from inside came the sounds of a baby and several murmuring voices. When Kate saw Marc she gave him a tired smile.

"What's going on?" asked Marc.

"Just delivered a baby, what did you do today?" replied Kate sardonically.

Marc looked at her in surprise, "Really? Wow."

"Piece of cake, my boy Darren and I had it covered," as she pointed at the grey haired Healer. Darren regarded her, "Cake? Ah…now you are the one telling jokes." He started to smile at Kate but broke off suddenly in burst of dry coughs.

Kate had a worried look on her face, "Darren, let's get you to a bed. You should lie down." She helped him up while Marc then helped him into a nearby empty room. Darren reclined on the bed and gave Kate a sad little smile, "I believe I don't feel well."

She returned his sad smile, "Anything I can get you?"

"No, I'm fine," and then began another series of dry coughs. Kate gave him a mild exasperated look. "You Souls will be at death's door and you don't want to complain. Let me get you some water."

"I'll get it," said Marc as he turned out of the small room. He had only gone a few steps when Scott rounded the corner of the hallway. At the sight of Marc he broke into a run, "Damn it, been looking all over the place for you. We've got a problem."

"I am so tired of hearing that. Guess what, don't care," came Marc's irritated response.

"Marc," said Scott through clenched teeth, "I'm serious. Simon has locked himself in with Crystal Spires. She started bleeding from the nose and the next thing we know, Simon barricaded himself in the room with her. Says he's going to cure her or die trying."

Marc let out a low groan of frustration, "Simon has completely lost it." He let out a long sigh, "And Crystal Spires is dead?" He knew if she was dead or dying, what protection they had would be gone as well.

"No, she was still alive last I knew, but she isn't going to last long. Matthew and the other healers were trying to break down the door to get in," explained Scott.

Marc closed his eyes, badly wishing this all to go away. He slowly opened them and regarded Scott. "Ok, let's get up there. See if there is any chance to talk Simon down before he does something really stupid."

Kate, who had tended to Darren but listening as well, spoke up, "I'll go too. Simon might listen to me." Marc and Scott nodded in agreement and began to head down the hallway. She looked down to Darren on the bed. "Hey, I'll try to come back. You just sit tight."

"It's okay," said Darren gently, "Go and help your friend, it sounds like he needs you more than I do. It was a pleasure working with you…Healer Kate Gonzales."

The young Latino woman looked at the Soul Healer with genuine surprise and was more than a little moved, "Uhh…thanks. Good working with you too." She started to follow after her fellow humans, but stopped for a brief second and looked back wistfully. With a touch of sadness she continued after Marc and Simon.

The three of them reached the second floor of the hospital to find the Souls in frantic pace of work. Healers that were still healthy were quickly working over their fellow Healers that had taken ill. There was an excited buzz among them as they worked. Marc tried to ask one of the Healers what was happening, but the middle-aged woman pointedly ignored him. Marc looked over to Scott, "We miss something?"

Scott gave a confused shrug, "Don't know. Simon was working in a lab over there." He pointed to a room off to the left. Marc could see through the rush of Healers in the hallway that the door was off its hinges. They made their way over to the room and looked in.

Inside the room sat Simon on a small cot with Crystal Spires lying down. Simon was cradling her head and gently stroking her short brown hair. They noticed the body of Crystal Spires was very still. He didn't notice them as they came in. He was gently talking to Crystal Spires, "Annie…Annie can you hear me?"

"Umm…Simon, what's going on?" asked Marc uncertainly.

The doctor looked up at him and he had to blink several times before he finally recognized Marc and the others. He smiled unevenly at them and then glanced back down to Crystal Spires. "Annie, this Marc, Scott, and Kate, they helped me."

Kate sat down on the floor next Simon. She looked at him with deep sympathy "Hey, doc, it's okay. We all tried our best here, we really did." There was a slight hitch in her voice, "I'm sorry about Crystal Spires…about Annie." She took Simon's hand that was stoking what Kate assumed was a dead body, but she looked closer at the woman who Simon was holding. "She's still alive?"

Simon blinked at her, "She's fine, just sleeping."

Marc bent down and took Simon by the shoulders and forced him to pay attention to him. Marc took a deep breath, "Simon, what is happening here. We need to know."

"He cured her," came a quiet voice from behind them. The three humans turned around and saw Healer Matthew in the ruined doorway. He gave them a very tired smile, "He cured all of us."

"What!?" said all three Humans. Their outburst made Matthew shrink back in the doorway. Fatigue and stress had left his nerves frayed and he continued on with a quiver in his voice, "Simon found a cure, the correct combination of antibiotics and our drugs to eradicate the plague." Matthew continued, his voice a combination of weariness and elation, "We are making the cure as fast as possible, we have many to cure."

"How?" asked Scott, unsure if he should ask Matthew or Simon.

"Inspiration in desperation!" explained Simon enthusiastically. "We were close…just couldn't get that damn little bug to co-operate. It's a sneaky little bastard, keeps shifting its cell walls around on us. But we got it with a good old one-two punch."

Marc's mind was slowly trying to process all of this. He gave a Simon a confused look, "Is Crystal Spires okay then? Why isn't she moving?"

"She…well…It…is gone, Annie is here now," explained Simon in a way that didn't help explain anything.

Marc just continued to stare at Simon not understanding. Matthew came over and said in an emotionless tone, "Simon's price for the cure was that we removed Crystal Spires from…Annie. We obliged him. She is unconscious. It's a common result when we are removed from a host."

"Will she wake up?" asked Kate as she bent over and examined the unmoving woman.

"I don't know," said Matthew evenly. He sighed, "Thank you for all that you have done. But I need to go, there is much to do." He turned and exited from the room. Marc and Scot exchanged glances, disbelief on both their faces. Slowly Marc's mind was making it to first gear and he turned back to Simon.

"Simon, why did you get Crystal Spires removed? What happened to her, or it, whatever?"

"I wanted Annie back," said Simon in a childlike voice. He looked down at Annie and said softly, "They put Crystal Spires in a Cryotank, don't know what happens now." He looked back up Marc, Scott, and Kate, "I'm sooo tired."

Marc's mind had finally started to unfreeze, understanding of the new world they had suddenly been thrown. He could see that Scott and Kate were coming to the same conclusions as he. Marc was bone tired, but he found a new reserve of energy in these revelations. He turned to Scott and Kate.

"Get everyone. We are leaving. Now."

* * *

####

* * *

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow smelled a faintly metallic odor and something lightly brush her face. It made her nose inch and she reached up slowly and rubbed her face. She felt very thirsty. If on cue she heard a voice nearby, "Seeker, do you need something to drink?"

She slowly opened her eyes and saw a young woman in a Healer's scrubs staring down at her. She smiled and offered a cup to Bright Moon. "We are finding most people are a bit dehydrated after taking the cure. I know I was."

She took the cup of water and drank it down quickly; it did indeed feel very good on her parched throat. Bright Moon handed the cup back and looked around. She still was laying on the bed that Marc had put her in. _'Marc…'_ she thought and his name brought back a rush of memories and feelings. A quick look around confirmed that the human was no longer here.

"There was a human here, where did he go?" she asked the Healer.

"Human? I don't know…I suppose he would be with their Healer. I would never have believed we would be all saved by wild humans," mused the Healer softly.

Bright Moon blinked in confusion, "What did you say?"

"I'm sorry. Yes you would be a bit confused, but the cure to the outbreak, the Humans found it. We are delivering it as fast as we can."

"Cure? Not just a treatment?"

"Oh yes it works well. I was very ill, but now I feel almost back to normal," said the Healer with a happy smile.

For nearly a full minute Bright Moon on Fallen Snow sat stunned on the bed. Making the realization that the plague would be stopped left her with a sudden urgency. Bright Moon pulled herself out of bed, her legs felt weak and she stood with a bit of effort. The Healer's smile faded a bit, "Seeker, you will still need rest a bit before moving around. The disease was very taxing on these bodies. You will need time to recover."

"How long?"

"Oh not too long, maybe a half an hour of rest. Get some more…"

"No," interrupted Bright Moon forcefully, "How long have we had the cure?"

"Well…not long. Maybe a little over an hour ago I was cured. Are you sure you are alright to get up?" asked the Healer in a tone that implied she would rather Bright Moon was resting. But she was already making her way down the hall. At first her steps were tentative but after a few minutes she felt her regular strength returning. She needed to find Marc.

She arrived at an intersection in the hospital and tried to think where she needed to go. _'Where would Marc go?'_ she considered for a moment and then it dawned on her she knew exactly how the human would try escape from the hospital. She headed towards the elevators. When the door opened she got in quickly and pressed the button for the basement. It was possible she was too late, he would have a head start, but she knew Marc wouldn't leave until all of his people were safely out. There was still a chance he was close by.

As the doors of the elevator opened she sprinted out. She didn't have the energy for an outright run but she made her way quickly to the old sewage access in the basement. The old hatch looked long welded shut, but she knew better now. She had seen it when Marc had brought her the first time the hospital. Marc and his fellow humans had modified it so it could be opened easily. She now pulled on the cover, at first it refused to move an inch, but unexpectedly there was a loud click and the cover opened.

She looked down into the sewage tunnel and was about to start down the ladder when a soft voice came from behind her, "You've got to be the most persistent person I have ever met."

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow spun around and saw Marc Walters standing before her. He was as she last saw him, tired and worn, his clothes dirty, and sporting several days' worth of beard growth. He watched her with a small sad smile. He then raised his right hand and pointed a gun at her.

They stared at each other for time, both as still as stone. It could have been seconds or hours, neither one of them was sure. Finally Marc spoke, "Please move."

Bright Moon took one step toward him, "Marc, don't run."

"Feels like we've had this conversation a few times before, not going to happen."

"You saved us, you stopped the disease and you don't need to do this," she took another small step forward.

"Think Simon deserves most of the credit on that one, just my crazy idea. As you will recall you told me if we survived it wouldn't change anything. We are still enemies." His right hand didn't move and the gun stayed centered on her. He sighed, "I'm very serious. Take another step and I will shoot you."

She didn't move and she looked at him. His brown eyes were sad and tired. She said slowly, "We can find some way. With Crystal Spires help we'll…"

"Crystal Spires is in a can, she can't help us."

Bright Moon frowned, "Why is she…"

"Simon made a deal to get his wife back." He saw her surprise, "Yeah, Crystal Spires was living in Simon's wife's neck. Small world isn't it? Her removal was his price for the cure, not the best of timing, but I can't fault him for trying."

She looked down at the ground, stunned by the revelation. She was silent for a while, turmoil of many feelings spinning in her mind, "There are others…many in the hospital who saw you, know what you did for us."

"Is it enough? Can you tell me Seeker Skyward Into the Night will grant us peace? Can you give me a future where we are not hollowed out hosts or get quietly disposed of? Am I to put my people's fate in the hope the aliens who have all but obliterated us will now take us in and not wipe us out?" He asked with a great sadness in voice, his question asked as if it was from his entire race and not from a single human.

"I don't know," said Bright Moon miserably. "I just know…I don't want to fight with you." A signal tear rolled down her cheek. Marc's gun wavered and he finally lowered it to his side

"A tear for us?" asked Marc with a touch of surprise as she nodded.

"She never asked someone for something they couldn't do…" whisper Bright Moon. Marc gave her an odd look. "Your Sister Mary-Margret asked me on her death-bed to grant you mercy. It's as if she knew what would happen."

"She was a wise old woman. She held us together and was our collective heart. She will be greatly missed."

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow moved out of Marc's way as he entered the tunnel. "Marc, what will you do now?"

Marc Walters looked back at her from the tunnel, his old grin returning, "We'll do what we've always done…survive." She watched him as he climbed down into the darkness below, as the darkness swallowed him up he called out, "See you around Bri," and was gone.


	15. Epilogue

"All the records are gone?" asked Seeker Skyward Into the Night. He glowered at the Soul who had reported the loss of the records. The Soul was in the body of a young man and was not a Seeker. He was a technician assigned to repair computer systems. He shrank back from the fuming Head Seeker.

It had been nearly three days since the cure had been found and the city was slowly returning normal. The quarantine had been lifted just this morning and Seekers returning to their headquarters had made an alarming discovery.

In a timid voice the tech responded, "I'm sorry, but all the records in the database on the city tunnels, waterways, and access ways are gone. It's been wiped clean."

"There are archives, backups, what about those?" demanded Skyward.

"We are searching through those as well, but so far the records seem to be gone." Skywards face had become so unpleasant that the technician meekly slid away when Seeker Twice Fires and several other Seekers came up to Skyward.

"Seeker Twice Fires, what have you found?"

"Using descriptions from Seekers that were held in the human's 'hospital' we were able to determine that it was most likely part of the old LaSalle Street tunnel that had been sealed up years ago. With construction equipment we were able to force our way into the facility from above."

Skyward nodded, "Good. Good. What did you find?"

Twice Fires sighed, "Nothing…the entire facility is abandoned."

Seeker Bright Moon on Fallen Snow only half listened to the other Seekers talk about the Humans. She knew that Twice Fires's search would find nothing. Marc and his people would have moved on already. She was mostly looking at the empty desk where Calm Waters Below had sat. There was dull pain in her chest whenever she looked at his desk. She missed him greatly, and reflected on his last words to her. Looking back, she realized that he had wanted to be more than friends for some time. She had just never noticed, wrapped into her own world.

She forced herself to listen again to Skyward. He was addressing all the Seekers, "Once the city is fully stabilized, we will gather every available Seeker into an armed force and scour those tunnels until the Human Resistance is found."

She remembered Marc's words from before, _'Armies have disadvantages too, they are loud and slow and we learned to avoid them'_. "You won't find them," she said softly to herself.

"I'm sorry Seeker Bright Moon, what did you say?" asked Skyward Into the Night.

Bright Moon on Fallen Snow looked up and said slowly, "Sorry, I didn't say anything."

Skyward regarded her for a moment more before turning back to the other Seekers. She continued to look at the empty desk.

* * *

####

* * *

Space was tight and Marc and Dell had to press against the wall to be able to fit in room. Their new home didn't have nearly enough space and for the time being they were going to be almost on top of each other.

Marc sighed as he helped Eric reconnect a convoluted set of wires that tied several computers together. He was already missing their old home; it had been their sanctuary for nearly five years. It was hard to give up, but there was little choice. He turned back to his work. Eric had insisted that he needed all of this computer equipment. But Marc wasn't going to argue, for Eric had pulled off his best work ever.

"So you find anything else in the Seekers files?" asked Dell as he reconnected a monitor.

"Yeah, plenty of neat stuff," grinned Eric. "Why we need to get this all hooked up," as he gestured to all the computer equipment. "Got to start sorting through it all."

"You sure you deleted all records related to the tunnels?" asked Marc.

Eric sighed and rolled his eyes, "Yes, for the tenth time. The computer worm I uploaded into their system would delete anything with reference to any type of tunnel in Chicago. It then uploaded itself into their archive library and starts removing records from it. They are back to square one."

"Eric, I don't say this enough because I worry you head is already too big, but you are best geek in the whole world," said Marc with a smile.

"Damn straight I am," agreed Eric.

Mia bounced into the room, something that wasn't easy with the three men and piles of computer equipment. Eric scowled at the young girl, "Careful, you break something." But Mia wasn't paying attention, "Brothers, she wakes!"

Marc, Dell, and Eric all exchanged looks. "Do you mean…" asked Dell.

"Yes! Annie awakes," sang Mia and she dashed out of the room. All three men followed after her down the narrow corridor.

Since their escape from the hospital, Simon's wife Annie had remained unresponsive and comatose. Simon had examined her and could find nothing physically wrong with her. But for a long time Crystal Spires the Soul had full control of her body and mind. It was hard to tell what would happen to a person after so much time.

Simon had watched over her at first, but his exhaustion was too great and he had been sleeping for the better part of two days. As far as Marc was concerned that was fine, the man deserved a rest. He had saved them all. Interestingly enough Mia had been fascinated by Annie and had taken over watching the woman and continued efforts to wake her up. She had spent nearly all her time with the unmoving woman.

They turned a corner and entered another small room. Mia rejoined Kate who was watching Simon and now an awaken Annie. Kate held a finger to her mouth for silence. They could hear Simon talking softly with Annie, "It's okay sweetie, it will come back to you in time."

Softly they could hear Annie's reply, "Simon, I…it feels like…I don't know…like I've been somewhere else for a long time."

Tears were rolling down Simon's cheeks, tears of utter joy, "Love, it doesn't matter. You're home and you're safe."

Marc looked on the happy couple and nodded to himself. They had endured the impossible, done the impossible. Their future was still unknown and uncertain. But for now, they were safe and they could rest.

* * *

####

* * *

**_-Elsewhere_ **

_"They helped them…Hell, they cured them. How could they do that!?" exclaimed the assistant._

_The man behind the desk sighed; it had been a very busy time for them. He watched his assistant rant about the Human group in Chicago for a minute more before interrupting, "They wanted to survive, and they found it by helping their enemy. The will to survive, it is one of humanities greatest strengths. Something the parasites just don't get. We really shouldn't be surprised that it happened."_

_His assistant sat down across from his superior, trying to calm himself, "I suppose so. But it threw off all of our predictions. The death toll is less than half what we projected."_

_The man behind the desk simply shrugged, "Doesn't matter. The primary goal was achieved. The death toll of the parasites was just a secondary target. We always knew that this stage would be tricky, a fast moving pathogen's greatest limitation is to burn itself out before it can infect the entire target population."_

_His assistant sighed and looked sullen, "They could still be a problem. This Marc Walters has proven to be…very problematic."_

_The assistant's boss nodded, "Yes and we will deal with Marc and his little band in time. But right now we have much work ahead of us."_

_The assistant nodded eagerly, "We do, there is still much to be done. But we should be ready with stage two in a matter of weeks."_

_"Excellent"_

**Author's Note:**

> This story started out as an idea after I finished reading the Host. As I began writing, it kind of took on a life of its own. Originally I planned to write a few chapters and then widen it to include many characters from the book. But as I wrote, the story continued to evolve and grow. This story now is the first part of a trilogy that I plan to write (A huge task, I hope I can make it). This is my first real fan fiction I have ever written. Please read, enjoy, and review!
> 
> -Walker


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